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V 
By  JAMES  II.  RIGG,  D.  D., 

PSllTCIPAI.  <>F    Till".    WXSLBVAM   TRAI1»IHG    COLUGK,    "Wkst.minsi  i:r.    ExCLANDj 

Armor,  of  "Modebii    Anglican   Tih>>i.<  <;y."'  uTh«   Rkiatiorh  of 

John    Weslev    and    of    WbbLXYAH    Methodism    with    the 

Cnri:.  ii  of  England,"  "Essays  kok  the  Times,"  etc 


WITH    AN    INTRODUCTION    BY 
JOHN  F.  HURST,  D.D. 


]^ew   York  : 
N RLSO X     A     p HILLIP8 

CINCINNATI:    mTCIICOCK   A    WALDEN. 

1874. 


Entered  a-,  cording  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1-75.  by 

NELSON     &    PHILLIPS, 

in  the  ottice  of  tlie  Librarian  of  Congress  at  Washington. 


PREFACE. 


A"/f  Y  kind  friend,  Dr.  Hurst,   has    in    hi 


is 


^%6=t  Introduction,  as  yet  unread  by  me, 
said  what  he  has  thought  good,  as  to  my- 
self and  this  publication.  Here  I  will  only 
say  that  I  am  thankful  to  obtain,  for  what 
is  set  forth  in  the  following  pages,  the  atten- 
tion of  the  largest  national  reading  public 
in  the  world,  and  especially  of  the  largest 
national  Methodist  community  in  the  world. 
Twenty  years  ago,  and  more,  I  used  to 
cherish  the  hope  that  some  day  I  might 
write  the  Life  of  Wesley  and  the  History  of 
Methodism.  The  latter  aim  has  been  an- 
ticipated, with  great  competency,  by  two 
writers — by  my  living  friend,  Dr.  Stevens, 
in  America,  whose  vigorous  and  vivid  vol- 
umes require  no  praise  from  me,  and  by  my 
greatly  beloved  and  now  deceased  friend, 
Dr.  George  Smith,  in  my  own  country, 
with  whom  I  was  in  close  correspondence 
throughout  the  whole  of  his  work  in    pre- 


4  Preface. 

paring  his  valuable  history.  The  utmost  I 
could  now  hope  would  be  to  elucidate  some 
points  of  Methodist  history,  especially  be- 
tween 1780  and  1800,  and  from  1848  to  the 
present  time. 

After  Mr.  Tyerman's  diligence,.  I  think 
there  is  need  for  an  original  and  standard 
life  of  the  Methodist  reformer,  which  should 
be  at  once  shorter  and  more  satisfactory — 
clearer,  fuller,  and  more  discriminating  as 
to  matters  of  essential  importance.  I  can- 
not but  fear,  as  I  feel  life  ebbing  away,  and 
duties  and  engagements  multiplying  around 
me,  that  I  shall  not  be  permitted  to  at- 
tempt the  execution  of  what  I  had  contem- 
plated so  long.  But,  if  my  desire  should 
thus  go  unfulfilled,  in  the  present  publica- 
tion I  shall  have  the  satisfaction  of  know- 
ing- that  I  have  been  enabled  to  do  at  least 
something  toward  furnishing  a  true  por- 
traiture of  John  Wesley  in  his  human  af- 
fections, in  his  intellectual  character,  and 
in  his  gifts  and  power  as  a  preacher. 

James  H.  Rigg. 

Westminster  Training  College, 
London,  October,  1S74. 


INTRODUCTION 


r  I  "HERE  is  a  kind  of  greatness  which,  like  the  world's 
■  J^  finest  cathedrals,  requires  a  certain  distance  for  its 
proper  appreciation.  The  magnitude  of  St.  Peter's  can 
be  better  comprehended  from  the  farther  end  of  the  Piazza, 
or  even  from  the  Pincian  Hill,  than  when  standing  beneath 
the  four  evangelists,  in  rich  mosaic,  that  look  down  from  the 
dome.  Mommsen,  that  best  of  all  our  historians  of  Rome, 
tells  us:  "  Ordinary  men  see  the  fruits  of  their  actions  ;  the 
seed  sown  by  men  of  genius  germinates  slowly.  Centuries 
elapsed  before  men  understood  that  Alexander  had  not 
merely  erected  an  ephemeral  kingdom  in  the  East,  but  had 
carried  Hellenism  to  Asia ;  centuries  again  elapsed  before 
men  understood  that  Alexander  had  not  merely  conquered  a 
ne>v  province  for  the  Romans,  but  had  laid  the  foundation 
for  the  romanizing  of  the  regions  of  the  West."  * 

If  we  measure  John  Wesley  by  this  standard  we  shall 
find  him  not  wanting  in  that  peculiar  greatness  which  not 
only  stands  the  test  of  time,  but  needs  the  flight  of  years  to 
exhibit  it  in  its  real  proportions.  No  personage  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  Church  was  more  diversely  interpreted  during  life 
than  the  son  of  the  Epworth  rector.  Latterly,  his  mission  and 
character  have  been  so  thoroughly  analyzed,  and  the  points 
of  his  life  so  clearly  manifested,  that  there  is  now  no  diversity 
of  opinion  concerning  either  his  profound  and  varied  scholar- 
ship, or  his  vast  mental  endowments,  or  those  moral  charac- 
teristics which  shone  with  increasing  luster  as  he  advanced 
into  serene  and  silvery  age.  It  seems  that  we  are  in  an  age 
which,  whatever  be  its  defects,  has  the  power  to  place  the 
religious  leaders  of  the  past  in  their  true  light.     Calvin,  in 

*  "  History  of  Rome,"  vol.  iv,  p.  34S.     N.  Y.  edition.  1873 


6  Introduction. 

the  hands  of  Kampschulte,  and  Pascal,  as  described  by 
Dreydorff,  are  not  the  men  of  the  sixteenth  or  seventeenth 
centuries,  but  grander  and  better  men.  * 

The  following  work  is  the  last  of  a  series  of  recent  mono- 
graphs on  John  Wesley.  Without  question,  it  gives  informa- 
tion which  cannot  be  found  elsewhere,  or,  rather,  its  judgments 
are  founded  upon  data  with  which  the  previous  authors  had 
no  acquaintance.  We  do  not  have  here  the  details  of  a  biog- 
raphy, but  the  generalization,  well  supported,  which  a  mas- 
ter hand  has  presented.  The  author  has  written  much  upon 
Wesley  and  the  great  movement  which  began  with  him,  and 
it  is  with  a  tone  of  sadness  that  he  tells  us  of  his  inability  to 
carry  out  one  of  the  cherished  hopes  of  his  life — to  prepare  an 
elaborate  life  of  the  founder  of  Methodism.  This,  however, 
is  one  of  the  penalties  of  great  plans  and  accruing  years.  Sir 
William  Hamilton  had  twelve  unwritten  books  on  hand  at 
the  time  of  his  death.  The  late  Athanase  Coquerel,  Sen.,  the 
eloquent  preacher  of  the  French  Reformed  Church,  enter- 
tained for  many  years  the  hope  of  writing  a  large  work,  in 
four  volumes,  on  "Sacred  Eloquence,"  but  had  to  content 
himself  with  a  little  volume,  "  Observations  on  Preaching." 
"  The  Living  WTesley  "  belongs  to  this  same  class  of  publica- 
tions, which  increasing  years,  heavy  public  burdens,  and 
still  greater  literary  undertakings,  have  necessarily  made 
small.  But  who  will  say  that,  for  the  public,  they  have  not, 
in  their  condensed  form,  their  greatest  possible  value  ?  Our 
times  crave  rather  the  results  of  profound  and  thorough  inves- 
tigation than  the  processes  by  which  the  results  are  reached. 

The  eminence  attained  by  the  author  of  the  following 
work,  makes  it  fitting  that  a  somewhat  detailed  account 
of  him  should  be  given.  James  H.  Rigg  was  born  in  En- 
gland on  January  16th,  1821.  He  was  educated  at  Kings- 
wood  School,  where,  as  a  student,  he  excelled  all  his  as- 
sociates in  mathematics.  His  only  equal  in  the  classics  was 
a  member  of  the  same  class,  T.  E.  Webb,  now  the  brill- 
iant   Professor   of   Moral    Philosophy   and    Law   in   Trinity 

*  "  Johann  Calvin,  seine  Kirehe  una*  sein  Staat  in  Genl."  Bonn, 
1869.     "  Pascal,  sein  Leben  und  seine  Kiimpfe."     Leipzig,  1870. 


Introduction.  7 

College,  Dublin,  Practicing-  Barrister  in  the  same  city,  a 
Fellow  of  Trinity,  and  author  of  the  "  Intellectualism  of 
Locke."  Mr.  Rigg  entered  the  Wesleyan  ministry  in 
1845,  having  for  two  years  previously  been  classical  and 
mathematical  assistant  at  Mr.  John  Conquest's  Academy, 
Bigglenade,  Bedfordshire.  In  1846,  and  for  several  fol- 
lowing years,  he  was  a  contributor  to  the  "  British  Review," 
edited  at  that  time  by  Dr.  John  Harris  and  Dr.  Philip  Smith, 
author  of  "  History  of  the  World."  In  1828  he  began  his 
contributions  to  "The  Watchman,"  of  London.  In  1849, 
the  year  of  the  disastrous  "  agitation  "  in  British  Methodism, 
his  services  were  called  into  requisition  as  conference  corre- 
spondent and  writer  of  leading  articles  on  the  crisis  in  that 
journal.  His  efforts  for  several  years  were  more  serviceable, 
perhaps,  than  those  of  any  other  man  in  defense  of  original 
Wesleyan  Methodism.  In  1850  he  published  his  "  Principles 
of  Wesleyan  Methodism,"  which  reached  a  second  edition  the 
following  year.  While  pastor  in  Worcester,  in  1850,  his  health 
became  seriously  impaired,  and  he  was  compelled  to  desist  even 
from  occasional  preaching.  In  July,  however,  he  resumed  his 
pen  as  correspondent  of  "  The  Watchman."  During  1850, 
and  nearly  all  of  1851,  he  was  compelled  to  travel  for  his 
health.  During  the  winter,  which  he  spent  in  Cornwall,  he 
wrote  a  series  of  papers  on  "  Wesleyan  Connection  and  Con- 
gregational Independency  Contrasted,"  which  were  intended 
as  a  reply  to  the  attacks  of  the  Congregational  press  on 
Methodism.  The  defense  was  so  successful  that  no  re- 
joinder was  ever  made.  This  work  has  long  been  out  of 
print,  Dr.  Rigg  having  no  desire  to  call  up  the  old  issues  by 
a  new  edition. 

Notwithstanding  his  defense  of  the  principles  of  his  Church 
against  selfish  and  bitter  schism  within,  and  aggressors  from 
without,  Dr.  Rigg  has  always  been  a  liberal  conservative,  or, 
it  may  be  said,  a  conservative  reformer  in  Methodism.  With- 
out avoiding  controversy,  he  has  seldom  made  assertions 
which  he  has  been  compelled  to  retract,  and  he  has  the  sat- 
isfaction of  finding  that,  so  far  as  the  most  of  his  principles 
are  concerned,  time  has  only  proved  their  correctness  and 


8  Introduction. 

strength.  In  1851,  out  of  consideration  for  his  precarious 
health,  he  was  stationed  on  the  Island  of  Guernsey.  While 
here  he  was  one  of  the  members — by  far  the  youngest — of  a 
large  special  commission,  appointed  to  consider  the  Consti- 
tution of  Methodism.  As  a  member  of  this  commission  he 
took  a  leading  part  in  supporting  the  Rev.  Dr.  John  Beech- 
am,  who,  being  at  the  time  ex-President  of  the  Wesleyan 
Conference,  had  prepared  a  judicious  and  liberal  scheme  of 
reform,  and  of  Rev.  John  Scott,  the  President  of  the  Confer- 
ence, who  sustained  Dr.  Beecham.  At  the  same  time  Dr. 
Rigg  proposed,  and  doing  so  was  supported  by  Rev.  William 
Arthur,  some  principles  of  representative  liberalism  in  regard 
to  District  Meetings  and  the  Preliminary  Committees,  which 
were  finally  adopted,  though  after  the  lapse  of  ten  or  twelve 
years.  Dr.  Beecham's  proposals  were  adopted  by  the  Con- 
ference of  1852,  after  long  and  earnest  discussion,  in  which 
Dr.  Rigg  bore  a  due  part. 

In  1854  Dr.  Rigg  went  to  London,  and  became  connected 
with  the  "  London  Quarterly  Review,"  then  just  starting  into 
existence.  His  first  article  was  on  "  Conybeare  and  Howson's 
Life  and  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,"  one  of  a  long  series  of  papers 
which  have  contributed  greatly  to  the  strength  and  just  celeb- 
rity of  that  Review.  He  also  became  a  contributor  to  the 
"  Methodist  Quarterly  Review,"  of  New  York,  then  under 
the  editorial  care  of  the  late  Rev.  Dr.  M'Clintock.  His  con- 
tributions to  these  two  Quarterlies  have  formed  the  basis  of 
that  excellent  work,  "  Modern  Anglican  Theology,"  now  in 
an  enlarged  (second)  edition.  His  "  Essays  for  the  Times," 
a  large  octavo  volume,  appeared  in  London  in  1866.  His 
subjects  are  largely  ecclesiastical  and  social,  as  may  be  seen 
from  the  following  selection  :  "Vocation  and  Training  of  the 
Clergy,"  "  Defects  and  Remedies  of  the  Established  Church," 
"  Kingsley  and  Newman,"  "  The  Bible  and  Human  Progress," 
and  "  Pauperism  and  Popular  Education."  Dr.  Rigg  has 
more  recently  published  "  The  Relations  of  John  Wesley  and 
Wesleyan  Methodism  to  the  Church  of  England,"  now  in  its 
second  edition.  This  volume  is  recognized  as  the  standard 
publication  on  the  subject.     Since  then  he  has  made  an  im- 


Introduction.  9 

portant  contribution  to  the  Sabbatarian  question  :  "  The  Sab- 
bath and  the  Sabbath  Law  before  and  after  Christ."  His  most 
recent  works  is  "  Popular  Education  in  its  Social  Conditions 
and  Aspects,  and  Public  Elementary  School  Education,  En- 
glish and  Foreign."  (London,  1873.)  Of  his  special  adaptation 
to  speak  as  an  authority  on  the  now  much-discussed  subject  of 
education  in  England,  the  following  words  from  the  Preface  to 
that  work  furnishes  very  proper  testimony:  "A  student  and 
teacher  through  all  my  youth  and  my  earlier  manhood  ;  after- 
ward, during  more  than  twenty  years  of  very  extensive  and 
various  intercourse  with  the  middle  and  lower  classes  of  the 
people  in  most  parts  of  England,  and  among  mining,  manu- 
facturing, and  agricultural  populations,  as  well  as  in  large 
middle-class  towns,  continually  intent  upon  the  study  of 
social  and  intellectual  facts  and  needs  ;  now,  for  five  years 
past,  having  held  the  position  of  principal  in  one  of  the 
largest  training  colleges  in  the  kingdom,  and  for  nearly  three 
years  having  been  a  member  of  the  London  School  Board,  I 
venture  to  ask  for  what  is  set  forth  in  the  following  pages  the 
candid  attention  of  those  who  desire  to  see  England  the 
home  of  an  educated,  provident,  and  self-respecting  Chris- 
tian people." 

I  have  elsewhere  stated  the  principle  underlying  Dr. 
Rigg's  views  of  education,  but  may  properly  repeat  it  here. 
It  is  this  :  The  goal  at  which  every  Christian  nation  should 
aim  is  a  complete  national  education.  This  includes,  besides 
the  pervasive  influence  of  religion,  the  influence  of  home 
and  family ;  of  street,  school,  and  work-place — be  this  a 
shop,  or  office,  or  factory,  or  pit,  or  simple  chamber ;  of 
each  person's  business,  craft,  or  profession  ;  of  society  ;  of 
civil  and  political  duties  and  ideas  ;  of  the  public  press,  in- 
cluding books  and  journals  ;  of  all  life's  prizes  to  each  man, 
and,  finally,  of  the  various  motives,  incentives,  and  oppor- 
tunities which  stir  up  desire,  and  suggest  or  determine 
action.  All  these  mold  the  character  of  individuals,  and  so 
determine  that  of  the  whole  nation.  The  school  is  but  one 
factor  toward  the  general  result  ;  but  far  more  important 
than  the  school  is  the  influence  of  home  and  the  family. 


io  Introduction. 

The  survey  of  the  state  of  popular  education  on  the  Con- 
tinent commends  itself  to  every  reader,  not  merely  as  a  com- 
prehensive examination  of  the  various  systems  there  in 
use,  but  also  as  the  most  recent.  Spain,  Italy,  and  Belgium, 
and  the  Scandinavian  countries,  are  but  slightly  treated ; 
while  Holland,  France,  Germany,  and  Switzerland  are  exam- 
ined with  most  satisfactory  minuteness,  and  their  methods 
compared  with  those  of  England.  The  palm  of  common- 
school  education  is  given  to  Holland,  above  all  other  coun- 
tries on  the  Continent  or  in  the  world,  though  Dr.  Rigg 
agrees  with  Cuvier,  Cousin,  and  Matthew  Arnold  as  to  the 
inferior  character  of  Dutch  secondary  and  higher  education. 
One  of  the  chief  causes  of  the  high  grade  of  primary  educa- 
tion in  Holland,  compared  with  Germany  and  Switzerland, 
is  the  fact  that,  in  these  latter  countries,  the  pastors  of  the 
Churches  have  predominant  authority  as  managers  or  in- 
spectors of  the  schools,  while  in  Holland  the  work  of  inspec- 
tion is  organized  and  carried  out  by  a  corps  of  independent 
laymen. 

In  this  whole  department  of  the  volume  there  is  so  much 
valuable  information,  that  it  would  be  well  to  bring  it 
before  every  inquirer  into  the  educational  systems  of  the  civ- 
ilized world.  How  the  various  countries  have  wrought  out, 
each  for  itself,  their  own  methods  of  education,  and  how 
these  have  subsequently  acted  and  re-acted  upon  each  other, 
are  points  with  which  our  students  of  social  science  are  but 
little  acquainted.  We  are  too  much  in  the  habit  of  regard- 
ing education  in  its  isolated  and  local  relations,  instead  of 
in  its  general  features. 

That  full  justice  is  done  our  system,  and  that  ample  use 
has  been  made  of  our  official  educational  records,  which  of 
late  have  undergone  vast  improvement,  are  proved  by  the 
favorable  attentions  which,  as  we  learn  from  private  sources, 
have  been  awarded  Dr.  Rigg  by  our  Educational  Bureau 
at  Washington.  One  of  the  chief  objections  to  our  com- 
mon-school system  urged  by  him  is  the  want  of  special 
training  of  our  teachers  for  their  official  functions.  "  If,"  he 
says,  "  American  teachers,  as  a  class,  were  both  apprenticed 


Introduction.  i  i 

to  their  profession  and  properly  trained  by  tutors  and  pro- 
fessors, nothing  is  hazarded  in  saying  that  they  would  soon 
be  the  most  effective  teachers  in  the  world."  This  evil  is  in 
rapid  process  of  removal  by  the  normal  schools  that  are 
taking  shape  in  all  our  States,  if  the  teachers  prepared  in 
them  shall  continue  to  follow  that  calling. 

We  hope  the  author  will  complete  his  survey  by  an  exhaust- 
ive treatise  on  university  education,  particularly  in  its  histori- 
cal bearing.  We  know  no  other  English  or  American  writer 
who  has  made  the  preparations  requisite  for  such  a  work. 
We  want  all  the  systems  of  university  education  treated  just 
as  we  here  find  elementary  instruction  examined.  Indeed,  we 
have  had  hardly  a  book  on  this  subject  worthy  of  perusal  since 
Pusey's  "  Essay  on  the  Best  Methods  of  Teaching  in  the  Uni- 
versities." With  all  the  discussion  on  university  reform  and 
economy  in  both  this  country  and  Great  Britain,  there  is  no 
department  of  education  where  there  is  more  vagueness  of 
thought,  in  even  the  circles  that  we  are  in  the  habit  of  regard- 
ing well-informed. 

Dr.  Rigg  is  known  to  the  British  public  as  a  lecturer  and 
preacher  not  less  than  as  an  author.  The  paper  in  his  "  Es- 
says for  the  Times,"  on  "  The  Bible  and  Human  Progress," 
was  originally  delivered  as  a  lecture  on  the  Exeter  Hall  plat- 
form. In  the  first  volume  of  the  publications  of  the  "  Chris- 
tian Evidence  Society,"  under  the  presidency  of  the  Bishop 
of  London,  we  find  a  lecture  by  him  on  "  Pantheism,"  which 
is  well  worthy  a  place  beside  Saisset's  masterly  monograph 
on  the  same  subject. 

No  one  can  question  for  a  moment  that  Tyerman's  "  Life 
and  Times  of  John  Wesley  "  is  the  best  of  all  the  elaborate 
works  on  the  great  Reformer  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Its 
abundance  of  entirely  new  material  excites  our  amazement 
that  it  has  required  three  quarters  of  a  century  for  a  writer 
to  appear  who  should  be  the  first  to  bring  it  to  the  general 
public.  And  if  the  author  of  the  present  work  does  take 
occasional  exceptions  to  statements  of  Tyerman,  he  never- 
theless now  and  then  throws  upon  the  remarkable  subject 
a   light  with   which  not    even   that  acute  searcher  was  ac- 


12  Introduction. 

quainted  ;  and  when  criticism  does  come,  it  is  always  that  of 
the  generous  friend  and  loving  brother. 

At  the  session  of  the  Evangelical  Alliance  in  New  York, 
in  October,  1873,  Dr.  Rigg  was  the  representative  of  the 
British  Wesleyan  Church.  His  paper  on  "Education,"  read 
before  that  body,  was  the  ripe  fruit  of  his  laborious  study 
and  long  professional  life.  Of  his  high  estimate  of  our  coun- 
try and  its  great  mission,  and  of  the  value  he  attaches  to  the 
delightful  friendships  he  here  formed,  the  following  language, 
from  his  recent  public  correspondence,  bears  beautiful  witness  : 

"  Of  the  magnificent  and  amazing  resources  of  your  coun- 
try, so  far  surpassing  all  that  a  stranger  could  well  conceive 
by  mere  reading,  there  is  no  need  for  me  to  write.  The 
blessing  of  Joseph,  as  pronounced  by  Moses,  belongs  to 
your  inheritance  in  boundless  measure.  Your  wealth,  of 
every  kind,  of  land  and  stream  and  lakes,  of  minerals  and 
fruits,  surpasses  fable,  exceeds  all  imagination.  But  what 
most  impressed  me  was  the  moral  import  and  forces  in- 
volved in  your  position,  and  the  most  solemn  responsibility 
which  belong  to  all  those  who  have  the  guidance  and  mold- 
ing of  such  a  nation  as  yours — the  nation  which  is  endowed 
with  such  an  inheritance,  and  to  which  must  appertain  such 
matchless  destinies.  Your  circumstances  have  educated 
your  people  yet  more — much  more — than  even  your  schools. 
Your  thoroughly  awakened  and  stimulated  intelligence  has 
been  prepared  and  eager  to  welcome  the  best  and  most 
forcible  products  of  cultivated  intellect  and  genius.  No 
Christian  ministers  have  to  preach  to  such  a  body  and  bulk 
of  eager,  keen,  receptive,  and  fairly  informed  intelligence  as 
yours.  It  follows  that  no  ministers  need  themselves  to  be 
men  of  such  powerful  and  highly  cultivated  intelligence. 
Your  ministers  need,  as  a  class,  to  be  men  of  higher  powers, 
and  of  riper,  deeper,  sounder  cultivation,  than  their  brethren 
of  England.  The  Churches,  led  by  them,  are  bound  to  be 
the  salt  of  the  land,  redeeming  it  equally  from  profane  unbe- 
lief and  from  moral  and  political  corruption. 

"  I  was  in  America  six  weeks,  all  but  a  day  or  two.  I 
have  had  the  great  privilege  of  seeing  the  true  domestic  inte- 


Introduction.  13 

rior  of  some  families  of  the  highest  and  rarest  quality  for  the 
combination  of  Christian  principle  and  high  culture.  1  have 
made  very  many  acquaintances,  and  in  every  acquaintance 
have  found  a  friend — in  not  a  few  cases  have  found  very  dear 
friends  ;  while  I  have  been  able  to  grasp  the  hands  and  hear 
the  voices  of  some  whom  I  had  but  known  before  by  intel- 
lectual and  moral  sympathy,  and  to  retouch  and  deepen 
some  lines  of  sympathy  and  friendship  with  brethren  I  had 
met  in  my  own  country. 

"  My  visit  to  America  has  been  full  of  the  best  sort  of 
pleasure.  It  has  left  me  to  return  home  laden  with  bright 
and  affectionate  recollections.  It  must  be  a  sunlit  spot  in 
my  life  forever.  I  knew,  too,  among  other  things,  from  the 
testimony  of  all  my  friends  who  have  trodden  your  shores, 
that  I  should  receive,  merely  as  an  English  brother,  more 
than  a  courteous — a  cordial  and  generous — welcome.  But  I 
never  expected  to  find  affectionate  and  unstinting  kindness 
so  prompt,  and  thoughtful,  and  unwearied,  as  I  have 
actually  experienced." 

May  we  not  hope  that  the  volume  which  Dr.  Rigg  here 
presents  to  the  Christian  public,  besides  enlarging  the  num- 
ber of  his  personal  friends  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic,  will 
lead  to  a  still  more  truthful  appreciation  of  that  great  Re- 
former in  whom  all  Anglo-Saxon  countries  have  a  special  in- 
terest, and  who  claimed  the  world  for  his  parish  ? 

J.  F.  HURST. 

Drew  Theological  Seminary, 
November  27,  1874. 


CONTENTS 


PART  I.  PAOT 

INTRODUCTORY 17 

PART  II. 

WESLEY'S  CHARACTER  AND  OPINIONS  IN  HIS 
EARLIER  LIFE,  TO  THE  PERIOD  OF  HIS  EVAN- 
GELICAL CONVERSION. 

Chapter 

I.  His  Boyhood  and  Youth 53 

II.  The  Collegian  at  Oxford 61 

III.  John  Wesley,  Miss  Kirkham,  and  Mrs.  Pendarves, 

(afterward  Mrs.  Delany) 82 

IV.  Wesley's  Theological  Views  and  Religious  Char- 

acter at  Oxford,  1731-1735 113 

V.  Wesley  in  Georgia — His  Affair  with  Miss  Hopkey.  130 
VI.  Wesley's  Religious  Opinions  and  Character  in 

Georgia 141 

PART  III. 

JOHN  WESLEY  AFTER    HIS    CONVERSION,    AND    IN 
THE  MATURITY  OF  HIS  POWERS. 

I.  Wesley's    Ritualism   and    Mysticism   before   his 

Evangelical  Conversion 149 

II.  Wesley's  Evangelical  Conversion 170 

III.  Wesley  the  Preacher  206 

IV.  Wesley  as  a  Thinker 236 

V.  Wesley's  Disposition  and  Character  Illustrated 

and  Vindicated 250 


PART  I. 

INTRODUCTORY. 

WESLEY'S  BIOGRAPHERS  AND  CRITICS. 


PART  I 


INTRODUCTORY. 

HERE  are  some  questions  as  to  Wes- 
ley's character  and  the  nature  of  his 
influence  still  unsettled  ;  indeed,  as  I  shall 
show,  he  is  very  imperfectly  understood  as 
yet.  But  there  can  be  no  question  as  to 
the  immense  spread  and  depth  of  the  mo- 
tive influence  which  he  has  been  the  means 
of  originating  within  the  nationalities  of 
England,  with  all  her  Colonies,  and  of  the 
United  States,  not  to  speak  of  the  critical 
and  determinative  influence  which  has  been 
exercised  by  Methodism  upon  the  Protest- 
ant thought  and  life  of  France,  and  even 
of  Germany.  No  single  man  for  centu- 
ries has  moved  the  world  as  Wesley  has 
moved  it ;  since  Luther,  no  man.  No  Prot- 
estant Church  at  this  day  counts  so  many 
adherents     as     the     Methodist     family    of 


1 8  The  Living  Wesley. 

Churches  ;  no  Church  has  operated  so  pow- 
erfully as  a  ferment  of  life  among  all  the 
other  Churches. 

If  these  things  are  so — and  nowadays 
men  will  hardly  venture  to  deny  the  truth, 
at  least  in  general,  of  what  I  have  stated — 
it  is  no  wonder  that  the  present  age  has 
waked  up  to  an  eager  curiosity  as  to  the 
character  of  the  man,  the  secret  of  his 
power,  the  meaning  of  his  work,  the  history 
of  his  life.  Long  ago  Dr.  Southey  perceived 
the  capabilities  of  his  theme ;  historian, 
man  of  letters,  and  poet  laureate  as  he  was, 
he  treated  the  character  and  life  of  Wesley 
with  a  respect  and  ability  worthy  alike  of 
the  subject  and  the  writer.  It  was  inevi- 
table that  such  a  philosophic  Churchman 
as  Southey,  such  a  semi-rationalistically-or- 
thodox  Anglican,  should  commit  serious  er- 
rors in  his  attempt  to  portray  and  estimate 
such  a  character  as  that  of  Wesley.  It  was 
equally  inevitable,  with  no  other  sources  of 
information  than,  in  addition  to  Wesley's 
Works,  the  "  Arminian  Magazine,"  and  the 
very  imperfect  lives  of  Wesley  which  had 


Introductory.  19 

been  published  by  his  overworked,  hurried 
and  driven,  and,  as  literary  men  and  histori- 
ans, untrained  itinerants,  the  best  life  which 
Southey  or  any  other  writer  could  produce 
should  be  defective  and  incorrect.     He  had 
no  access  whatever  to   the  special  sources 
of  information  without  which  no  life  of  such 
a  man  could  be  justly  or  adequately  written, 
and  which  it  was  as  yet  too  soon  after  the 
death  of  Wesley  to  expect  to   be  given  to 
the  world.     But,  with  all  its  faults,  the  work 
produced  by  Southey  was  so  beautiful  in  its 
style,  and  so  skillful  in  its  use  of  the  mate- 
rials at  his  disposal,  that  to  this  day  it  has 
remained — now  for  half  a  century — the  one 
biography  by  which  Wesley  has  been  known 
to  the  world.     Men  have  not  read  the  Lives 
written  by  Whitehead,  Coke,  and  Moore — 
for  many  years,  indeed,  these  have  been  out 
of  print,  and  it  would  be  an  injustice  to  the 
name  and   memory    of   Wesley   to   reprint 
any  of   them  ;    but    Southey's    Life   of  the 
Methodist   Reformer  has  been  in  every  im- 
portant and  well-chosen  library,  whether  of 
a  public  institution  or  of  a  private  mansion  ; 


20  The  Living  Wesley. 

and  its  fascination  has  not  failed  to  secure 
it  successive  generations  of  readers. 

Wesley's  life,  indeed,  as  written  by  the 
Tory  historian,  reviewer,  biographist,  poet 
laureate  and  poet,  (a  poet  laureate  is  not 
necessarily  a  poet,)  and  as  written  in  the 
best  style  of  one  who  was  a  master  both 
of  the  English  language  and  of  the  bi- 
ographer's art — became  at  once  an  English 
classic,  and,  what  is  much  more,  raised  the 
character  and  memory  of  Wesley  at  once, 
in  the  circles  of  men  of  high  and  thoughtful 
culture,  to  a  place  of  eminence  and  respect 
often  rising  to  veneration.  Nor  was  it  only 
to  Wesley  that  Southey  did,  according  to 
his  light,  generous  justice  ;  he  did  justice 
also  to  the  humble  but  great  and  noble 
men,  such  as  John  Nelson  and  the  soldier 
Haime,  who  were  Wesley's  early  and  chief 
lay-helpers.  He  showed  these  men  in  their 
true  light,  as  manliest  among  men  and 
saintliest  among  saints  ;  as  men  of  no  less 
steadfast  power  than  fervid  zeal ;  as  among 
the  heroes  of  the  holy  Christian  warfare. 
Thus  the  total  effect  of  Southey's  "  Life  of 


Introductory.  2 1 

Wesley"  was  to  elevate  the  Methodism  of 
Wesley  and  his  followers  to  a  place  of  per- 
manent interest  and  honor  before  their  coun- 
trymen, and,  we  may  say,  before  the  world. 
Southey,  indeed,  as  I  have  intimated, 
misapprehended  some  leading  particulars 
in  Wesley's  character,  and  accordingly  mis- 
construed broadly,  in  certain  directions,  his 
motives  and  his  conduct.  He  conceived 
ambition  to  be  the  leading  natural  feature 
of  his  character,  and  to  have  powerfully 
prompted  and  controlled  him  through  life 
— the  ambition  of  the  ruler  and  the  states- 
man ;  he  resolved,  moreover,  the  wonderful 
effects  of  his  preaching  into  the  natural 
results  of  potent  and  penetrating  oratory, 
managed  with  consummate  skill  by  a  master 
alike  of  speech  and  of  the  art  of  turning 
circumstances  and  situations  to  account. 
For  these  fundamental  errors  he  was  most 
ably  and  severely  searched  and  called  to 
account  by  the  Rev.  Richard  Watson,  in 
his  well-known  and  very  valuable  "  Observa- 
tions on  Southey's  '  Life  of  Wesley/"  and 
his  misconceptions  in  this  respect  have  also 


22  The  Living  Wesley. 

been  effectually  disposed  of  very  recently 
by  Miss  Wedgwood,  in  her  essay  on  Wesley, 
Miss  Wedgwood  having  apparently  never 
read  Mr.  Watson's  " Observations."*  Still, 
with  all  its  errors,  and  notwithstanding  its 
necessary  defects — notwithstanding  its  evi- 
dent Anglican  prejudices  and  its  persuasive 
taint  of  rationalistic  sense-dogmatism  and 
spiritual  insusceptibility — Southey's  work 
was  so  interesting,  so  genial,  so  candid, 
so  evidently  sincere,  and  even  generous,  in 
its  spirit,  that  it  ought  ever  to  be  regarded 
by  the  followers  of  Wesley  as  the  work,  not 
of  an  enemy,  but  of  one  who  meant  honestly 
and  kindly,  and  who  has  really,  on  the 
whole,  done  the  office  of  a  friend.  Indeed, 
Southey  himself  became  convinced  that  he 
had  wronged  Wesley's  memory  and  misun- 
derstood his  character ;  and  if  he  had  lived 
to  brine  out  the  new  edition  of  his  "  Life  of 
Wesley"  which  he  had  in  contemplation,  he 
would  have  made  a  correction  of  his  errors^ 
Whether   Mr.   Watson's   criticism    had   any 

*  "  John  Wesley   and    the    Evangelical    Reaction   of  the 
1 8th  Century."     By  Julia  Wedgwood.     London:  Macmillan. 


Introductory.  23 

share  in  bringing  about  this  change  I  know 
not.  Southey's  own  account  of  it,  given  to 
the  late  learned  and  amiable  James  Nichols, 
litterateur  and  printer,  of  Hoxton  Square, 
in  an  autograph  letter  of  which  a  facsimile \ 
very  interesting  to  look  at,  if  it  were  only 
for  the  elegance  and  neatness  of  the  writing, 
is  engraved  in  Dr.  Smith's  "  History  of 
Methodism,"*  states  that  Mr.  Alexander 
Knox,  in  "  a  long  and  admirable  paper," 
(which  is  printed  at  length  in  the  recent 
editions  of  Southey's  biography,)  had  "  con- 
vinced him  that  he  was  mistaken"  on  this 
point.  The  date  of  this  letter  was  17th 
August,  1835.  He  was  at  that  time  making 
some  preparations  for  a  new  edition  of  the 
"  Life,"  and  he  stated  that  it  was  "  his  inten- 
tion to  incorporate  in  it  whatever  new  infor- 
mation has  been  brought  forward  by  subse- 
quent biographers,  and,  of  course,  to  correct 
every  error  that  had  been  pointed  out,  or 
that  he  himself  could  discover."  More  than 
twelve  months  later,  in  December,  1836,  be- 

*  "  Wesley  and  his  Times,"  vol.  i,  p.  634.     London  Edition. 
Longman  &  Co. 


24  The  Living  Wesley. 

ing  on  a  visit  to  Penzance,  he  in  substance 
repeated  to  the  late  Mr.  Carne,  of  that 
town,  the  same  statement  which  he  had 
made  in  writing  to  Mr.  Nichols.  Unfortu- 
nately, the  new  edition  was  never  prepared 
by  him  ;  and  when,  after  his  death,  his  son 
edited  a  new  edition,  in  which  Mr.  Knox's 
observations  were  printed,  as  well  as  some 
notes  by  Coleridge,  he  seems  to  have  been 
ignorant  that  his  father  had  been  convinced 
by  Mr.  Knox,  or  intended  to  rectify  his 
error.  He  leaves  it,  indeed,  distinctly  to  be 
inferred  that  the  text,  as  originally  printed, 
expressed  his  father's  settled  judgment  on 
the  matter  in  question. 

Southey's  biography  was  published  early 
in  1820.  Before  the  end  of  the  same  year 
Mr.  Watson  published  his  "  Observations." 
It  was  not,  however,  until  1825  that  the 
Methodists  themselves  put  forth  a  new  life 
of  their  founder,  such  as  might  be  regarded 
as  a  corrective  to  that  of  Southey.  This  was 
the  Rev.  H.  Moore's  "  Life,"  in  two  volumes, 
published  at  the  Conference  Office.  Mr. 
Moore   was   one   of  Wesley's  trustees,  the 


Introductory.  2$ 

other  two  being  Dr.  Coke  and  the  physician, 
Dr.  Whitehead.  Of  these  the  last  had  got 
hold,  in  the  first  instance,  of  Wesley's  papers, 
and  had  published,  very  unfairly,  by  means 
of  these,  a  separate  and  an  ex-parte  life  of 
Wesley,  as  regarded  chiefly  from  the  point 
of  view  of  an  English  Churchman,  although 
Whitehead  himself  was  in  principle  a  thor- 
ough Dissenter.  To  anticipate  this  publi- 
cation, the  other  two  trustees,  by  the  help 
of  Wesley's  own  publications,  and  of  such 
papers  as  they  were  able  to  command  the 
use  of,  published  very  hastily  a  joint  life  of 
Wesley.  Malice,  however,  had  been  be- 
forehand, and  Hampson's  "  Life"  (Hampson 
had  formerly  been  a  Methodist  preacher, 
but  was  then  a  clergyman  of  the  Church  of 
England)  had  been  published  even  earlier 
than  that  by  Coke  and  Moore.  The  latter, 
though  it  sold  largely,  was  too  hurried  a 
composition  (to  a  large  extent,  indeed,  it 
was  a  mere  compilation)  to  hold  its  rank  as  a 
biography  of  Wesley.  Moore's  "  Life,"  pub- 
lished in  1825,  was  more  carefully  prepared 
and    fuller    than    either    of    its     Methodist 


26  The  Living  Wesley. 

predecessors,  and  was  intended  to  serve  as 
an  antidote  both  to  Whitehead's  and  to 
Southey's  "  Life."  It  was  far,  however,  from 
being  really  adequate  to  the  claims  of  Wes- 
ley's history,  notwithstanding  its  genuine 
interest  and  its  sterling  value.  It  never  for 
a  moment  was  likely  to  supersede  that  of 
Southey  in  the  general  reading  world. 
Watson,  at  the  request  of  the  Conference, 
undertook  to  prepare,  and  published  in  the 
year  183 1,  a  short  Life  of  Wesley  for  popular 
use  and  extensive  circulation.  But  Watson 
was  in  failing  health,  and  greatly  over- 
worked. His  little  volume  is  valuable  for 
its  observations  on  certain  points  especially 
connected  with  the  relations  between  Wes- 
ley and  the  Church  of  England  ;  but,  re- 
garded as  a  consecutive  biography,  it  was 
altogether  too  slight,  and  left  far  too  many 
blanks  in  the  narrative.  It  was  far  from 
being  even  a  tolerably  complete  epitome  of 
Wesley's  crowded  and  momentous  history. 
In  these  respects  it  is  greatly  inferior  to 
the  French  Methodist  biography  of  Wesley, 
(by  Mr.  Lelievre,)  which  is  a  fresh,  original 


Introductory.  27 

and    admirably  reduced   and    proportioned 
epitome  of  the  Life  of  Wesley* 

Since  Watson's  "Life  of  Wesley,"  no  En- 
glish biography  of  the  founder  of  Method- 
ism had  been  published  until  the  Rev.  Luke 
Tyerman  recently  published  his  elaborate 
work,  which  is  now  republished  by  the  Har- 
pers, of  New  York.  The  first  volume  of  Dr. 
Smith's  History  of  .Methodism  was,  how- 
ever, virtually  a  biography  of  Wesley,  for  the 
most  part  correct  and  judicious,  although 
slight  and  incomplete.  Though  slight,  it 
contributed  some  new  and  important  infor- 
mation on  the  subject.  The  first  volume 
of  Dr.  Stevens'  able  "  History  of  Method- 
ism" furnished  a  fuller  and  more  vivid  ac- 
count of  the  chief  figure  among  the  leaders 
of  Methodism.  It  was  not,  however,  and 
could  not  be,  a  complete  biography,  nor  did 
it  stand  apart.  It  was  intermingled  with 
the  sketches  and  episodes  of  an  eloquent 
and  stirring  history.     The   Life  of  Wesley 

*  "John  Wesley:  his  Life  and  Work."  By  the  Rev. 
Matthew  Lelievre.  Translated  from  the  French,  by  the 
Rev.  A.  J.  French.  Published  at  the  Wesleyan  Conference 
Office,  London. 


28  The  Living  Wesley. 

was  but  the  chief  among  several  biograph- 
ical lines  of  narrative  which  were  interwoven 
in  that  history. 

Southey's  "  Life  "  was  very  likely  to  suggest 
the  history  and  character  of  Wesley  as  a 
theme  for  philosophical  students  of  religious 
movements  and  ecclesiastical  history.  It 
was  not,  however,  till  thirty  years  after  the 
first  publication  of  his  volumes  that  the 
first  essay  on  Wesley,  in  a  separate  volume, 
made  its  appearance.  This  was  by  Isaac 
Taylor,  and  was  entitled  "  Wesley  and  Meth- 
odism." The  author  of  Essays  on  Enthu- 
siasm, on  Fanaticism,  on  Spiritual  Despot- 
ism, on  Ignatius  Loyola,  could  hardly  have 
refrained  from  working  out  a  study  in  his 
own  line  of  composition  on  the  character 
and  life  of  Wesley.  Taylor's  "  Wesley  and 
Methodism"  is  not  less  faulty  than  might 
have  been  expected  from  such  a  writer,  but 
it  possesses,  at  the  same  time,  considerable 
merits,  and  some  parts  of  it  are  written  in 
Taylor's  best  manner.  Dr.  Dobbin,  some- 
where near  the  same  time,  published  a 
warmly  appreciative  sketch  of  Wesley.     A 


Introductory.  29 

few  years  earlier,  the  late  Dr.  James  Ham- 
ilton, in  the  "  North  British  Review,"  had 
published  an  article  on  Wesley,  which,  al- 
though brilliantly  written,  and  conceived  in 
a  kindly  spirit,  showed  that  the  writer  knew 
very  little  of  the  real  character  or  of  the  la- 
bors of  the  founder  of  Methodism.  After  this 
period  nearly  twenty  years  passed  away  be- 
fore much  was  written  again  respecting  Wes- 
ley. Two  or  three  years  ago,  however,  the 
gifted  author  of  the  "  Schonberg-Cotta  Fam- 
ily" series  of  stories,  in  her  "  Diary  of  Mrs. 
Kitty  Trevelyan,"  brought  the  life  of  early 
Methodism,  according  to  her  conception,  viv- 
idly before  a  large  circle  of  readers.  Mean- 
while, the  public  interest  in  Wesley,  and  in 
the  history  and  position  of  Methodism,  was 
at  once  shown  and  stimulated  in  England  by 
discussions,  year  after  year,  in  convocation  ; 
by  those  reports  of  the  proceedings  of  the 
annual  Wesleyan  Conferences  which,  within 
the  last  few  years,  have  become  a  striking 
feature  in  the  leading  newspapers  of  the 
country,  both  metropolitan  and  provincial ; 
by  discussions  relating  to  Methodism  in  cler- 


30  The  Living  Wesley. 

ical  meetings ;  by  correspondence  in  the 
religious  journals ;  by  sundry  letters  and 
pamphlets  relating  to  the  subject,  chiefly 
bearing  upon  the  question  of  reunion  with 
the  Church  of  England;  and  by  tracts  relat- 
ing to  the  same  matter  which  are  extensively 
circulated  by  clergymen  of  the  Church  of  En- 
gland. Within  the  last  fourteen  or  fifteen 
years  two  articles  on  the  relations  between 
Wesleyan  Methodism  and  the  Church  of 
England  have  been  published  in  the  "  Lon- 
don Quarterly  Review," — -the  former  from 
the  pen  of  Rev.  W.  Arthur;  the  latter,  which 
has  been  since  published  in  a  separate  form, 
from  the  pen  of  Dr.  Rigg.  The  public 
mind  in  England  has  thus,  within  the  last 
few  years,  become  much  more  widely  inter- 
ested, and  somewhat  better  informed,  re- 
specting Wesley  and  his  work  than  formerly. 
Doubtless,  also,  the  publication,  (in  thirteen 
volumes,)  under  the  able  editorship  of  Dr. 
Osborn,  of  the  Richmond  Theological  In- 
stitution, of  the  whole  of  the  Wesley  poetry, 
by  which,  for  the  first  time,  the  world  has 
been  made  aware  of  the  wealth  and  variety, 


Introductory.  3 1 

as  well  as  the  intensity  and  brilliancy,  of 
the  poetic  power  with  which  the  two  broth- 
ers, but  especially  Charles,  were  endowed, 
has  contributed  to  the  general  feeling  of 
interest  with  which  the  career  of  the  Wes- 
leys  is  now  regarded — of  Charles,  as  the 
Methodist  poet,  and  otherwise  his  brothers 
faithful  coadjutor;  of  John  Wesley,  as  the 
leading  mind,  whose  character  and  convic- 
tions gave  law  to  the  whole  Wesleyan 
movement.  One  further  element  I  must 
name  as  contributing  largely  to  the  recent 
growth  of  interest  in  Wesley  and  Method- 
ism ;  it  is  that  which,  indeed,  has  been  al- 
ready in  part  intimated  in  my  reference  to 
the  space  recently  accorded  to  the  Wesley- 
an Conference  in  the  public  papers — I  mean 
the  manifest,  and  the  manifestly  growing, 
power  of  Methodism.  With  this  element  in 
the  case,  the  extension  of  the  franchise,  the 
spread  of  anti-State-and-Church  principles, 
the  precedent,  as  many  regard  it,  of  the  Irish 
Church  disestablishment,  distinctly  connect 
themselves. 

It  is  no  wonder,  accordingly,  if  Mrs.  Oli- 


32  The  Living  Wesley. 

phant,  in  her  series  of  papers  in  "  Black- 
wood's Magazine"  for  1870,  concerning  the 
England  of  the  Eighteenth  Century,  found 
herself  brought  face  to  face  with  John  Wesley 
as  "The  Reformer"  of  his  age.  Her  work 
is  clever,  frank,  and  genial,  but,  as  was  to  be 
expected,  full  of  misconceptions.  Southey 
would  seem  to  have  been  her  one  source 
and  authority,  and  it  is  something  if  she 
detects  some  of  his  fundamental  mistakes. 

Since  Mrs.  Oliphant  wrote,  Miss  Wedg- 
wood has  published  her  very  candid  and 
thoughtful  essay  on  Wesley.  It  is  to  be 
lamented  that  Miss  Wedgwood  had  not 
read  more  on  her  subject.  She,  also,  seems 
to  have  relied  chiefly  on  Southey.  In  her 
list  of  authorities  we  find  Whitehead's 
"  Life  of  Wesley,"  and  that  by  Coke  and 
Moore ;  but  not  the  more  authentic  and  im- 
portant biography  of  1825,  by  Moore  alone  ; 
nor  (very  important  for  Miss  Wedgwood's 
purpose  in  her  study  of  Wesley)  Watson's 
"  Observations,"  nor  Watson's  "  Life,"  (by  no 
means  unimportant,)  nor  Dr.  Stevens'  very 
able   and  valuable  volume,  the  first  of  his 


Introductory.  33 

"History  of  Methodism,"  nor  the  exceed- 
ingly careful  and  authentic  biography  of 
Wesley,  which  constitutes  the  first  volume 
of  the  late  Dr.  George  Smith's  "History 
of  Methodism,"  (Vol.  I,  "Wesley  and  his 
Times,")  nor  even  Isaac  Taylor's  "Wesley 
and  Methodism,"  (a  book  most  germane  to 
her  purpose.)  Neither  of  the  articles  in 
the  "London  Quarterly"  to  which  I  have 
referred  seems  to  have  come  in  her  way. 
If  they  had  they  might  at  least  have 
cleared  up  some  points  of  misconception  or 
obscurity,  or  have  served  as  an  index  to 
sources  of  information.  But  I  have  often 
observed  how  deficient  are  mere  literary 
persons  in  the  instinct  and  art  of  research 
into  any  subject  which  appertains  to  the 
history,  the  opinions,  or  the  organization  of 
Nonconformists.  Southey,  indeed,  was  a 
distinguished  exception  to  this  rule,  but  it 
is  not  easy  to  find  another. 

It  is  all  the  more  satisfactory  and  note- 
worthy, however,  on  this  account,  that  Miss 
Wedgwood,  from  her  own  independent  study, 
has  been  enabled  to  refute  the  most  funda- 


34  The  Living  Wesley. 

mental  errors  in  Southey's  representation 
of  Wesley's  character.  With  a  quiet  grasp 
of  the  subject,  with  easy  acuteness  and  in- 
sight, she  disposes  of  the  charge  of  ambition 
as  easily  as  she  exposes  the  inconsistent 
and  untenable  naturalism  which  lies  at  the 
basis  of  Southey's  resolution  of  religious 
phenomena  into  their  supposed  constitu- 
ents, and  of  most  of  his  criticism  of  Wes- 
ley's "credulity"  and  "enthusiasm."  Her 
views,  indeed,  appear  to  be  strongly  tinct- 
ured with  Maurician  mysticism,  and  she 
repeats,  in  substance,  some  of  the  criticisms 
on  the  evangelical  Arminianism  of  Wesley 
which  are  contained  in  Coleridge's  notes  to 
Southey's  biography.  But  her  main  lines 
of  thought  seem  to  be  admirably  laid  out ; 
her  grouping  of  facts  to  be  very  skillful ;  her 
general  handling  of  the  subject  to  be  simple, 
massive,  and  masterly.  It  is  to  be  regretted, 
indeed,  that  what  we  have  is  only  a  study 
of  the  man  as  he  was  when  he  first  set  forth 
on  his  evangelical  work ;  or,  at  the  utmost, 
of  his  moral  and  spiritual  qualifications  as  a 
reformer,  and  of  the  oosition  to  which  he 


Introductory.  35 

advanced  in  the  opening  campaigns  of  his 
life's  warfare  :  consequently  the  volume 
gives  us  the  impression  of  being  merely 
an  introduction  or  a  fragment.  Wesley 
the  preacher  is  scarcely  sketched  at  all ; 
his  intellectual  characteristics  as  a  think- 
er or  writer  are  scarcely  touched  upon ; 
his  evangelical  itinerancy  is  not  repre- 
sented to  our  view  ;  his  ripe  manhood 
and  his  old  age  are  passed  by  ;  of  the  or- 
ganization and  the  wide-spread  work  and 
influence  of  his  later  years  next  to  nothing 
is  said,  except  only  so  far  as  relates  to  the 
American  ordinations.  In  short,  just  as 
misconceptions  have  been  cleared  away,  as 
his  position  has  been  distinctly  defined,  as 
the  nature  of  his  work  in  general  has  been 
explained,  and  its  need  and  vast  importance 
been  established  ;  just  when  his  disinterest- 
edness, his  magnanimity,  his  bravery  and 
gentleness  in  peril  and  in  controversy  have 
been  beautifully  shown  ;  just  as  the  general 
characteristics  of  his  mission,  his  purpose,  his 
faith,  have  been  set  forth,  and  we  are  waiting 
to  see  what  are  his  actual  powers  for  work 


3^  The  Living  Wesley. 

and  service,  for  preaching  and  counseling, 
for  molding  the  faith  and  the  theology  of  a 
community,  for  saturating  a  nation  with  his 
influence,  for  consolidating  and  governing 
a  Christian  Church  or  family  of  Churches, 
we  find  that  the  essay  breaks  off  and  all 
is  over.  Perhaps  Miss  Wedgwood  acted 
wisely ;  perhaps  she  knew  best  her  own 
compass  of  power ;  but  we  confess  to  have 
experienced  a  feeling  of  disappointment. 

Miss  Wedgwood  has  admirably  delin- 
eated the  circumstances  which  surround- 
ed Wesley  at  the  beginning  of  his  work ; 
and  she  has  effectually  refuted  Southey's 
errors  as  to  his  character  and  motives; 
but  the  living  man  himself,  as  preacher, 
as  ruler,  as  companion  or  friend,  she  has 
left  quite  in  the  shadow.  She  has  done 
justice  to  the  living  Wesley  only  as  a 
controversialist.  Indeed,  it  is  plain  that 
she  has,  so  far  as  she  has  conceived  his  liv- 
ing and  social  humanity  at  all,  in  part,  at 
least,  misconceived  it.  She  can  appreciate 
the  character  of  his  writing,  so  far  as  she 
has  studied  it,  and  has  also  fine  glimpses  of 


Introductory.  37 

insight  into  his  public  character  and  his  gifts 
as  a  ruler  ;  but  of  Wesley  as  a  friend  and 
companion  she  evidently  has  no  sort  of  just 
conception  ;  otherwise  she  would  not  have 
characterized  as  devoid  of  all  sense  of  hu- 
mor one  of  the  pleasantest  and  brightest  of 
men,  of  whose  remarkable  vein  of  humor, 
indeed,  she  must  have  read  some  instances 
in  Southey's  "  Life,"  and  would  have  found 
others  in  Stevens'  "  History;"  neither  would 
she,  notwithstanding  the  apparent  inhuman- 
ness  of  Wesley's  school  arrangements  at 
Kingswood,  and  the  reticence  as  to  domes- 
tic details  in  his  letters,  of  which  his  brother 
Charles  pleasantly  complained  in  their  col- 
lege days,  have  really  concluded  that  Wes- 
ley was  defective  in  human  sympathy,  had 
she  mastered  the  details  of  his  many-sided 
life  and  character.  Wesley,  as  will  presently 
be  shown,  was,  perhaps,  as  susceptible  a  man 
in  regard  to  all  the  charms  and  attractions 
of  social  character  and  intercourse,  espe- 
cially in  the  case  of  women,  as  can  easily  be 
found  among  the  saints  of  history. 

But  the  most  elaborate  work  which  has 


3$  The  Living  Wesley. 

of  late  appeared  on  Wesley  is  the  new 
"  Life,"  in  three  volumes,  from  the  pen  of 
the  Rev.  Luke  Tyerman,  to  which  I  have 
referred.  This  is  a  work  of  voluminous 
dimensions,  and  one  which  embodies  the 
results  of  very  great  research,  the  fruit  of 
years  of  industrious  reading  and  collection. 
Mr.  Tyerman  prepared  himself  for  his  work 
by  writing  his  biography  of  the  father  of 
the  Wesleys,  Samuel  Wesley,  the  rector  of 
Epworth,  a  volume  which  has  been  reviewed 
in  the  "  London  Quarterly  Review."  He 
seems  also  to  have  collected  and  studied — 
or  at  least  to  have  carefully  read,  if  he  was 
not  able  to  purchase — every  book,  pamphlet, 
broadsheet,  and  periodical,  in  which  there  is 
any  reference  whatever  to  Wesley :  so  that 
he  writes  with  hitherto  unequaled  fullness 
of  material  and  knowledge  so  far  as  respects 
the  facts  of  Wesley's  life.  Being  thus  fur- 
nished and  prepared,  he  has  set  himself  to 
search  out  and  set  forth  in  order  the  whole 
history  of  Wesley  from  his  cradle  to  his 
grave.  His  boyhood,  so  far  as  any  thing 
can  be  learned  about  it ;  his  school  and  col- 


Introductory.  39 

lege  life  ;  his  home  relations;  his  early  per- 
sonal friends,  including  not  only  university 
chums  but  well-beloved  ladies  ;  his  religious 
history,  minutely  traced  in  all  its  stages, 
especially  his  changes  of  opinion  and  feel- 
ing as  these  gradually  declared  themselves, 
— until  in  the  end  a  complete  revolution 
had  been  consummated,  and  the  academical 
high-Churchman  had  become  the  father  of 
the  Methodist  revival  and  transformation  ; 
his  preachings  and  journeyings;  his  organ- 
izations, his  controversies,  the  persecutions 
he  endured,  the  slanders,  in  full  tale  and 
in  all  their  baseless  enormity,  which  were 
continually  invented  and  circulated  against 
him,  however  miserable  and  short-lived 
such  slanders  may  have  been ;  his  love- 
affairs  and  his  married  life ;  his  almost 
innumerable  publications ;  his  conferences 
and  his  helpers,  ordained  and  unordained  ; 
his  "  ordinations "  and  his  relations  with 
the  Church  of  England;  his  co-operation 
and  his  disagreements  with  the  Moravians, 
with  Whitefield,  and  "the  Countess;"  his 
loving  concord  and  co-working,  and  his  no- 


40  The  Living  Wesley. 

less-loving  differences  and  contentions,  with 
his  Church-satirizing  but  Church-idea-lov- 
ing brother  Charles;  the  peaceful  labors 
and  the  wide-spread  love  and  honor  which 
marked  the  protracted  years  of  his  wonder- 
ful old  age  :  all  these  matters,  and  a  world 
of  things  besides,  belonging  to  the  infinitely 
busy  and  varied  life  of  Wesley,  Mr.  Tyer- 
man  has  made  known  to  the  world  in  these 
large  and  closely-printed  volumes.  The 
world,  by  the  help  of  Mr.  Tyerman,  may 
now  know  all  about  John  Wesley;  may 
know  much  more,  indeed,  about  the  mere 
facts  and  consecutive  history  of  his  life,  in 
its  various  fields  and  departments,  than 
was  ever  known  of  him  in  his  life-time  by 
his  closest  friends.  The  record  may  be 
read  and  pondered  in  all  its  breadth,  and 
from  beginning  to  end.  We  may  study 
the  man  as  he  hardly  could  have  studied 
himself. 

We  are  bound  to  admit,  moreover,  that 
Mr.  Tyerman  has  shown  no  indulgence  to 
his  hero.  Cromwell  enjoined  on  the  courtly 
portrait-painter  to  be  sure  to  paint   in  all 


Iiitroductoiy.  41 

the  warts  there  were  upon  his  face.  Mr. 
Tyerman  appears  rather  to  have  been  on 
the  look-out  for  warts,  and  occasionally,  as 
it  seems  to  us,  has  magnified  a  mole  into 
a  wart,  if  he  has  not  sometimes,  looking 
through  his  microscope  with  broken  light, 
fancied  he  saw  an  unevenness  and  blemish 
where  in  reality  there  was  none.  The  se- 
vere and  Rhadamanthine  judgment  which 
Mr.  Tyerman  has  exercised  in  regard  to 
the  pre-eminent  son  is  the  more  remark- 
able because  he  went  to  altogether  the 
other  extreme  in  writing  the  life  of  the 
father,  as  was  pointed  out  in  the  "  London 
Quarterly  Review."  On  that  old  soldier's 
face  there  were  warts  not  a  few,  and  of  no 
small  size.  But  Mr.  Tyerman  could  hardly 
see  any.  To  him  the  rector  of  Epworth 
was  an  altogether  noble  and  comely-seem- 
ing character,  with  few  and  venial  infirmi- 
ties, but  no  faults  of  any  serious  account  ; 
he  was  not  merely,  on  the  whole,  a  good  and 
able  and  worthy  man,  although  somewhat 
rugged  in  natural  disposition  and  time- 
serving in  professions  and  policy — to   Mr. 


42  The  Living  Wesley. 

Tyerman's  eye  he  was  a  truly  great  man,  a 
great  and  good  man  ;  he  was  a  high  poetic 
genius,  a  man  of  a  brave  and  lofty  spirit,  a 
great  sufferer,  a  great  hero,  and  a  great 
saint.  What  Frederick  the  Great  is  to 
Carlyle,  Samuel  Wesley  of  Epworth  is  to 
Mr.  Tyerman  ;  and,  according  to  his  ability, 
he  has  effected  for  Samuel  Wesley  a  trans- 
formation similar  in  character  to  that  which 
the  rugged  Scotch  philosopher  has  effected 
for  the  harsh  and  distempered  Prussian 
king.  And  now,  having  been  so  indulgent 
in  the  case  of  the  father,  Mr.  Tyerman 
has  set  himself  to  be  what  we  may  call 
sinistrously  faithful  in  the  case  of  the  son, 
pleasant  and  blessed  a  man  as  that  son 
undeniably  was. 

Perhaps  it  is  as  well  that  it  should  be 
so.  At  all  events,  we  may  perhaps  account 
for  the  different  treatment  which  the  biog- 
rapher has  bestowed  on  the  two  characters. 
The  Wesley  father  had  suffered  much,  had 
shown  much  patience  and  bravery  of  spirit, 
and  had  been  undervalued,  as  Mr.  Tyerman 
thought,  and  left  more  in  the  background 


Introductory.  43 

than  such  a  father  of  such  a  family — and  in 
particular  of  such  sons — should  have  been. 
There  was  a  great  deal,  too,  that  was  pic- 
turesque in  the  history  and  the  situation 
of  the  forlorn,  persecuted,  unbusiness-like, 
and  weather-beaten  rector.  Here  was  a 
temptation  to  an  author — to  repair  an  old 
injustice,  to  bring  out  a  striking  figure  into 
light,  to  disinter  a  hero.  As  to  the  son, 
the  case  is  different.  Mr.  Tyerman  has 
passed  his  life  among  those  who  almost 
worship  the  memory  of  John  Wesley  ;  many 
of  whom  think  him  absolute  perfection,  and 
cherish  toward  him  a  blind  and  unintelli- 
gent admiration.  Probably  he  himself  at 
one  time  shared  strongly  in  these  feel- 
ings. Research  has  shown  Mr.  Tyerman 
that  the  popular  conceptions  of  Wesley  are 
to  some  extent  mistaken.  In  applying  his 
research,  moreover,  to  point  after  point  in 
Wesley's  life,  he  has  discovered  what— as 
seen  through  his  lens — look  like  consid- 
erable  faults,  although,  when  the  natural 
eye  looks  at  the  whole  character,  they  fade 
away  into  almost  imperceptible  foibles,  or 


44  The  Living  Wesley. 

are  seen  to  be,  in  reality,  points  of  excel- 
lence. Here,  then,  are  discoveries,  which 
the  truth-loving  biographer  deems  it  neces- 
sary to  point  out ;  here  are  popular  errors 
which  it  is  his  stern  duty,  as  an  historian,  to 
correct.  Chivalry,  sustained  by  fact,  as  he 
fancied,  prompted  Mr.  Tyerman  to  make  a 
hero  of  the  father  ;  public  fidelity  seemed  to 
require  that  he  should  enlighten,  as  to  cer- 
tain points,  the  blind  worshipers  of  the  son. 
Nor  must  we  deny  that  it  was  Mr.  Tyer- 
man's  duty  to  be  severely  true  and  faithful 
in  his  history  of  John  Wesley,  and  this  all 

the  more  because  he  is  himself  a  Method- 
ist. We  are  bound  to  repudiate  altogether 
the  maxim,  as  applied  to  such  a  case,  that 
he  ought,  as  one  of  Wesley's  followers,  to 

"  Be  to  his  faults  a  little  blind, 
Be  to  his  virtues  very  kind." 

The  sanctity  of  truth — historical  truth — is 
a  holier  and  more  venerable  thing  than 
even  the  reputation  of  John  Wesley.  Nor 
should  we  withhold  from  the  biographer 
our  admiration  for  the  courage  and  fidelity 


Introductory.  45 

with  which,  according  to  his  own  concep- 
tions of  truth,  he  has  done  his  work. 
Moreover,  as  I  have  intimated,  his  rugged 
fidelity  has,  at  least  in  one  way,  done  good. 
No  one  can  read  this  Wesleyan  life  of 
Wesley  without  feeling  certain  that  the 
whole  of  Wesley's  life,  including  whatever 
might  have  appeared  to  bear  an  unfavor- 
able construction,  and  including  all  the 
scandals  which  were  circulated  respecting 
him  by  his  meanest  and  most  malignant 
foes,  is  brought  fully  out  to  view,  and  that, 
if  the  biographer  has  not  "  set  down  aught 
in  malice,"  he  has,  on  the  other  hand, 
"  extenuated  "  nothing.  Whatever  he  knew 
of  to  tell  is  told  ;  whatever  might  at  any 
time  have  been  suspected,  or  scandalously 
alleged,  that  is  told  too.  The  worst  possi- 
ble is  indicated  as  to  Wesley.  And  the 
result  is,  a  character  with  as  much  of  good- 
ness in  it  and  as  little  alloy  of  evil  as  could 
well  have  been  conceived  ;  the  character 
of  a  man  absolutely  free  from  meanness, 
from  malice,  from  any  standing  anger  or 
resentment  ;  who,  if  he  now  and  then  went 


46  The  Living  Wesley. 

wrong,  did  so  from  the  sanguine  impru-. 
dences  of  a  generous  and  susceptible  na- 
ture, or,  in  one  or  two  cases  in  the  course  of 
half  a  century,  from  the  momentary  irrita- 
tion which  a  thwarted  chief  might  be  apt  to 
feel ;  but  whose  whole  life  was  one  of  unre- 
mitting self-denial  and  unresting  labor  for 
the  good  of  others.  Such  a  character,  so 
revealed  and  established,  comes  out  most 
impressively  from  Mr.  Tyerman's  biography. 
Still,  I  cannot  but  add  that,  in  my  judg- 
ment, Mr.  Tyerman  has  overdone  his  fidel- 
ity. He  seems  to  have  acted  the  part, 
almost  wherever  possible,  of  advocatus  dia- 
boli — to  have  chosen,  as  a  rule,  the  worst 
construction  which,  with  any  thing  like 
probability,  could  be  put  upon  Wesley's 
life  and  character.  He  never  gives  the 
•benefit  of  the  doubt,  as  it  seems  to  us,  to 
the  accused,  but  always  to  the  accuser. 
Considering  who  and  what  Wesley  was,  and 
what  his  antecedents  and  independent  char- 
acter must  be  admitted  to  have  been,  this 
appears  not  to  be  judicially  fair.  Besides 
this,  there    is   a  tone    in   his    dealing  with 


Introductory.  47 

Wesley  which  fairly  astonishes  one  at  times. 
Mr.  Tyerman  does  not  merely  sum  up  in 
phrase  of  precise  accuracy  just  what  hap- 
pened, and  leave  his  readers  to  draw  their 
conclusions  :  he  censures,  he  pronounces, 
he  condemns  ;  and  this,  too,  in  a  tone  of 
harshness,  in  some  instances,  and  of  lofty 
decision,  as  if  he  were  Wesley's  superior 
and  judge.  I  believe  that  Macaulay — it 
is  perfectly  certain  that  Southey — would 
never  have  ventured  in  so  absolute,  uncere- 
monious, dictatorial  a  style  to  pronounce 
censure  on  John  Wesley.  They  would 
have  felt  their  own  inferiority  to  him  ; 
that,  if  he  sometimes  erred,  he  was  at  least 
a  good  and  great  man,  a  venerable  saint, 
as  to  whom  they  could  not  venture  to  pro- 
nounce an  unfavorable  judgment,  even  in 
individual  acts  of  his  life,  without  modesty 
and  self-restraint — without  what  the  Ro- 
mans would  have  called  verecundia.  Mr. 
Tyerman  has  not  been  restrained  by  any 
such  feelings.  At  times  his  mere  ipse  dixit, 
without  even  the  formality  of  any  attempt 
to  weigh  evidence  or  investigate   the   mat- 


48  The  Living  Wesley. 

ter,  pronounces,  sharp  and  short,  at  once  the 
folly  or  the  wrong-doing  of  Wesley.  Surely 
men  should  be  as  tender  in  their  style  of 
handling  the  character  of  departed  saints 
and  heroes  as  of  living  men.  But  if  his 
brethren  were  to  pronounce  judgment  on 
Mr.  Tyerman's  own  sayings  and  doings, 
with  decision  as  abrupt  and  unsparing  as 
he  uses  in  dealing  with  the  father  and 
founder  of  Methodism,  I  imagine  he  would 
have  a  very  good  ground  of  brotherly  com- 
plaint against  them. 

Nor  does  it  ever  seem  to  have  occurred 
to  Mr.  Tyerman  that  perhaps  Wesley  and 
he  regarded  certain  questions  from  differ- 
ent points  of  view ;  that  he  ought  to  have 
tried  fully  to  master  Wesley's  own  way  of 
thinking  and  regarding  the  matter  in  hand  ; 
and  that,  after  all,  from  some  point  of  view 
less  conventional  and  more  really  true  than 
his  own,  things  which  seem  to  his  preju- 
dices to  be  wrong  might  turn  out  to  be 
right.  Considering  that  Wesley  was  a  man 
of  far  more  thought  than  most  of  us — who 
had  seen  much  more  of  life  than  any  of  us 


Introductory,  49 

— it  is  possible  that  he  might  have  so  much 
to  say  for  his  own  way  of  thinking  and  act- 
ing, even  when  it  seems  to  be  directly  in 
opposition  to  some  current  notions  of  to- 
day, as  at  least  to  warrant  arrest  of  judg- 
ment in  the  case.  Mr.  Tyerman  appears 
incapable  of  entering  sympathetically  into 
the  mind  and  idiosyncrasy  of  Wesley.  He 
is  not  in  sympathy  with  him  ;  and  yet  does 
not  appear  to  feel  that  this  is  the  case,  or 
even  that  such  sympathy  is  necessary  in 
order  to  enable  him  to  write  the  life  of 
Wesley.  He  judges  merely  and  unhesi- 
tatingly by  his  own  lights  and  his  own 
instincts.  Those  instincts,  at  least  in  some 
cases,  I  am  bold  to  regard  as  mere  conven- 
tional prejudices,  and  am  prepared  to  vin- 
dicate Wesley  just  where  and  wherefore  his 
biographer  condemns  him  * 

But,    indeed,    nothing    is    more    evident 
than  that  Mr.  Tyerman  is  deficient  in  that 

*  The  contrast  in  tone  between  Mr.  Tyerman's  treatment 
of  Wesley  and  his  manner  of  judging  him,  and  the  manner 
in  which  genial  outsiders  write  of  him,  may  be  understood 
by  reference  to  the  article  on  "  Wesley  and  Wesleyanism  " 
in  the  "British  Ouarterly  "  for  October,  1871. 
4 


50  The   Living  Wesley. 

faculty  of  dramatic  sympathy  and  insight, 
without  which  it  is  impossible  for  any  man 
to  understand,  much  less  to  write,  the  life 
of  another  man,  especially  of  a  unique  and 
wonderful  man.  He  misunderstood  the 
father,  painting  him  after  his  own  heart 
merely,  but  not  as  the  facts,  properly  inter- 
preted in  a  spirit  of  insight,  really  present 
him  to  our  view :  he  painted  a  man  he 
could  understand  and  admire,  but  it  was  not 
the  rector.  In  that  case  the  facts  were 
unconsciously  warped  to  suit  the  sympa- 
thetic conception  of  the  biographer ;  in  the 
case  of  the  son,  he  generally  sticks  to  the 
facts  in  their  mere  outside  aspect,  but  often 
he  cannot  get  behind  them — cannot  see 
their  real  meaning.  In  neither  case  have 
the  facts  helped  him  to  a  true  and  real  con- 
ception of  the  life  and  character  which  lay 
behind  them. 


PART    II. 

WESLEY'S  CHARACTER  AND  OPINIONS  IX  HIS  EARLIER 

LIFE,  TO  THE  PERIOD  OF  HIS  EVAN- 
GELICAL CONVERSION. 


PART   II 


WESLEY'S    CHARACTER  AND    OPINIONS    IN   HIS 

EARLIER    LIFE,    TO  THE    PERIOD    OF    HIS 

EVANGELICAL  CONVERSION. 


CHAPTER  I. 

HIS   BOYHOOD   AND   YOUTH. 

EY  chief  object,  in  this  part  of  my 
study,  will  be  to  exhibit  some  points 
of  Wesley's  history,  and  some  aspects  of 
his  character  up  to  the  time  of  his  final 
and  full  spiritual  change,  which  hitherto 
seem  to  have  escaped  recognition.  Merely 
reminding  my  readers,  therefore,  that  he 
was  born  in  1703,  I  pass  over  the  circum- 
stances of  his  early  years.  Epworth  and 
its  parsonage,  with  the  rugged  and  granitic 
father,  the  episcopal  mother,  and  the  brill- 
iant throng  of  daughters,  I  must  not  at- 
tempt to  describe.  I  must  also  pass  over 
the  "  fire  "  at  the  parsonage,  and  even  "  old 


54  The  Living  Wesley. 

Jeffrey,"  that  inexplicable  visitation;  and, 
only  to  note  two  points,  must  I  stay  for  an 
instant  at  the  Charterhouse  School.  Wes- 
ley, it  is  well  known,  was  educated  there  ; 
and  there  endured  great  hardships  and 
even  cruel  oppressions — small  and  deli- 
cately-formed boy  as  he  was — from  some 
of  the  senior  scholars,  especially  during  his 
service  as  "fag."  It  appears  that  there 
was  a  tradition  in  the  school  that  Wesley 
was  accustomed,  when  himself  a  senior,  to 
associate  with  his  juniors.  This  is  likely 
enough  to  have  been  true,  considering  what 
the  manners  and  morals  of  the  school  were 
at  that  time.  He  might  do  some  good  to 
his  juniors,  and,  at  least  among  them,  might 
avoid  evil  communications. 

As  for  the  story  related  by  Mr.  Tyer- 
man,  that  when  Mr.  Tooke,  his  master, 
asked  him  the  reason  for  his  so  associat- 
ing, he  answered, 

"  Better  to  rule  in  hell  than  to  serve  in  heaven," 

I  simply  regard  it  as  an  invention  and  em- 
bellishment,   added    by    his    school-fellows, 


His  Boyhood  and  \  'outJi.  5  5 

more  puerorum.  to  amplify  and  round  off 
the  tradition  and  the  story.  I  feel  sure, 
besides,  and  by  the  way,  that  Wesley,  if 
he  had  quoted  Milton  at  all,  would  have 
quoted  him  accurately.  It  is  said  that 
Wesley  was  accustomed  to  "  harangue  "  his 
juniors,  and  it  is  likely  enough  that  he 
did,  more  or  less,  expound  and  hold  forth 
to  them  on  interesting  matters  of  routine 
and  duty,  or  possibly  on  themes  of  fancy. 
He  was  a  quick  boy,  with  the  gift  of  a 
teacher,  and  not  wanting  in  the  fancy  of 
a  poet. 

But  one  remark  made  by  Mr.  Tyerman, 
as  to  his  school-life  at  the  Charterhouse, 
strikes  me  as  singularly  austere.  It  is  the 
first  instance  of  the  austerity  with  which 
the  biographer  has  treated  Wesley  through- 
out. Wesley,  who,  it  must  be  remembered, 
entered  the  Charterhouse  at  the  aee  of 
ten,  is  said,  with  solemn  emphasis,  there  to 
have  "  lost  the  religion  which  had  marked 
his  character  from  the  days  of  infancy." 
He  is  himself  quoted  to  the  effect  that  at 
school  he  was  "negligent  of  outward  duties, 


56  The   Living  Wesley. 

and  continually  guilty  of  outward  sins." 
And  on  the  strength  of  this  confession  his 
biographer  says :  "  Terrible  is  the  danger 
when  a  child  leaves  a  pious  home  for  a 
public  school.  John  Wesley  entered  the 
Charterhouse  a  saint,  and  left  it  a  sinner." 
That  is  to  say,  he  entered  it  a  saint  of  ten 
years  old,  and  left  it  a  sinner  of  seventeen. 
Now,  I  emphatically  agree  that  the  dan- 
ger is  very  great  indeed  which  attends  a 
child  leaving  a  simple,  pious  home  to  enter 
upon  a  public  school.  The  wickedness  of 
public  schools  has  always  been  proverbial. 
But  I  think  the  instance  of  Wesley  is  by 
no  means  a  strong  one  to  cite  in  illustra- 
tion of  the  point.  I  hardly  know  how 
adequately  to  interpret  the  saying  that 
Wesley  at  ten  was  "  a  saint,"  or  to  under- 
stand the  contrast  between  the  saint-child 
of  ten  and  the  sinner-youth  of  seventeen. 
But  it  is  well  to  observe  in  what  sense 
Wesley  was  "a  sinner"  in  his  teens.  He, 
who  himself  made  the  confession  of  his 
religious  failures,  has  also  taught  us  how 
to  understand  and  qualify  them.     He  was 


His  Boyhood  and  Youth.  57 

negligent  and  careless,  and  he  was  guilty 
of  what  he  knew  to  be  outward  sins ;  but 
yet  such  sins,  he  tells  us  in  the  same  con- 
text, were  "  not  scandalous  in  the  eye  of 
the  world."  He  adds,  moreover:  "How- 
ever, I  still  read  the  Scriptures,  and  said 
my  prayers  morning  and  evening.  And 
what   I   now  hoped    to    be    saved   by  was : 

1.  Not   being   so    bad    as    other    people ; 

2.  Having  still  a  kindness  for  religion ; 
and,  3.  Reading  the  Bible,  going  to  church, 
and  saying  my  prayers." 

Such  is  the  sentence  which  Wesley,  the 
sternest  of  judges  in  such  a  case,  pro- 
nounced on  his  own  moral  and  religious 
state  when  he  was  at  the  Charterhouse 
— a  sentence  pronounced,  it  must  be  re- 
membered, at  a  time  when  all  Wesley's 
judgments  as  to  such  cases  were  far 
more  severe  than  they  became  as  revised, 
after  many  years'  experience,  in  his  later 
life.  It  was  in  1738  that  he  so  wrote  of 
himself.  It  is  clear  that  Wesley  never  lost, 
even  at  the  Charterhouse,  a  tender  respect 
for  religion,  the  fear  of  God,  and  the  form  of 


58  The  Living  Wesley. 

Christian  propriety.  That  he  was  at  this 
time  unconverted  there  can  be  no  doubt ; 
but  when  Mr.  Tyerman,  with  such  awful 
emphasis,  tells  us  that,  having  gone  to  the 
Charterhouse  a  "  saint  "-child  at  ten  years 
of  age,  he  left  it  "a  sinner"  at  seventeen, 
he  uses  language  which  can  scarcely  fail  to 
convey  an  altogether  exaggerated  impres- 
sion as  to  the  character  of  his  moral  and 
spiritual  faults  and  failings.  Nor  do  I  think 
the  unqualified  language  which  he  so  uses 
is  consistent  with  the  account  he  had  given 
on  a  former  page  of  young  Wesley's  behav- 
ior at  the  Charterhouse. 

Isaac  Taylor,  in  his  work  on  "  Wesley 
and  Methodism,"  says,  with  reference  to  the 
privations  and  oppressions  which  Wesley 
endured  at  school,  that  "  he  learned  as  a 
boy,  to  suffer  wrongfully  with  cheerful  pa- 
tience, and  to  conform  himself  to  cruel 
despotisms  without  acquiring  either  the 
slave's  temper  or  the  despot's."  Mr.  Ty- 
erman substantially  adopts  this  language 
into  his  text  as  his  own  description  of 
how  Wesley  fared   and  did   at   the   Char- 


His  BoyJiood  and  Youth.  59 

terhouse,  (p.  20.)  But,  for  my  part,  I 
cannot  help  thinking  that  not  a  little 
grace  must  have  been  still  working  in 
the  soul  of  the  brave  and  patient  boy,  to 
enable  him  to  behave  as  he  did.  Wesley 
must  have  carried  a  heart  not  only  bright 
and  hopeful,  but  forgiving ;  not  only  elastic 
and  vigorous,  but  patient  and  generous  ;  or 
he  could  not  have  looked  back  in  after 
days  on  his  six  or  seven  years  at  the  Char- 
terhouse— as  we  know  that  he  did  look 
back — not  only  without  bitterness,  but  with 
pleasure,  and  have  retained,  as  Southey 
says,  so  great  a  predilection  for  the  place, 
that,  on  his  annual  visits  to  London,  he 
made  it  his  custom  to  walk  through  the 
scene  of  his  boyhood. 

One  consequence  of  his  school-experience 
I  may  note  in  passing.  There  can  be  no 
doubt  that  what  he  saw  and  experienced  of 
the  wild  and  wicked  horse-play  of  a  great 
school  had  much  to  do  with  the  regulations 
which  he  made  long  afterward  for  Kings- 
wood  School,  forbidding  all  play,  and  per- 
mitting only  of  walks  and  garden-work  by 


6d  The  Living  Wesley. 

way  of  exercise  and  recreation.  It  was  no 
slight  evidence,  let  me  here  subjoin,  of  at 
least  the  powerful  restraining  influence  of 
religion  that  Wesley  passed  through  such 
an  ordeal  as  his  six  or  seven  years'  resi- 
dence at  Charterhouse  without  contracting 
any  taint  of  vice. 


TJte  Collegian  at  Oxford.  61 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  COLLEGIAN   AT  OXFORD. 


Q^_ 


ipgET  us  linger  awhile  with  Wesley  at 
^=^  Oxford — which  University  he  entered, 


as  scholar  of  Christ  Church  College,  in  1720 
— not  so  much  that  we  may  review  at  any 
length  his  course  and  experience  there,  as 
that  we  may  observe  what  manner  of  per- 
son he  was — first,  as  a  collegian,  companion, 
and  friend  ;  next,  as  a  theological  student 
and  Churchman  ;  and,  in  both  respects,  as 
a  living  and  moving  man,  full  of  power 
over  those  who  came  near  him. 

When  Wesley  went  to  Oxford  at  seven- 
teen he  was  a  gay,  sprightly,  and  virtuous 
youth,  full  of  good  classics,  and  also  with 
some  knowledge  of  Hebrew,  which  he  had 
begun  to  learn  under  his  brother  Samuel 
during  the  short  interval,  apparently,  be- 
tween leaving  the  Charterhouse  and  gain- 
ing his  scholarship  at  Christ  Church.     He 


62  The  Living  Wesley. 

was  moral  and  church-going  ;  according  to 
his  own  testimony,  he  read  the  Scriptures 
and  religious  books,  especially  commenta- 
ries ;  but  he  was  destitute  of  any  true  ap- 
prehension of  spiritual  religion  :  he  was,  in 
fact,  a  devout,  yet  half-worldly,  Pharisee, 
much  such  another  as  the  young  ruler  in 
the  Gospels,  only  without  his  possessions. 
His  scholarship  yielded  him  £4.0  a  year, 
which  ill  sufficed  for  his  needs.  His  tu- 
tors were  considerate,  and,  indeed,  gen- 
erous ;  his  poverty-wrung  parents  did  all 
they  could  for  him,  the  father  joining  to  his 
gifts  (poor  man)  reproofs,  now  and  then, 
of  his  son's  want  of  adequate  economy.  (!) 
But  with  all  this,  and  although  John's  par- 
simony must  really  have  been  extreme,  it 
was  very  hard  for  him,  during  his  under- 
graduate course,  and  afterward  until  pupils 
and  a  fellowship  brought  him  a  compe- 
tency, to  "  make  ends  meet."  "  Dear  Jack," 
wrote  his  mother  to  him  after  he  had  been 
some  four  years  at  college  and  had  taken 
his  bachelor's  degree,  "  be  not  discouraged  ; 
do  your  duty,  keep   close   to  your  studies, 


The  Collegian  at  Oxford.  6$ 

and  hope  for  better  days.  Perhaps,  not- 
withstanding all,  we  shall  pick  up  a  few 
crumbs  for  you  before  the  end  of  the  year. 
Dear  Jacky,  I  beseech  Almighty  God  to 
bless  thee."  A  month  later,  I  find  that  one 
of  the'  college  dons,  who  had  lent  Wesley 
money,  had  "  paid  himself  out  of  Wesley's 
exhibition,"*  not  altogether  to  the  content- 
ment of  Mrs.  Wesley. 

In  November  of  1724  Mrs.  Wesley  writes 
a  kind  letter  to  her  son,  in  which  she  urges 
him  to  save  as  much  money  as  possible 
that  he  might  pay  his  debts.  Early  in  Jan- 
uary, 1725,  the  father  writes  a  brief  note, 
promising  £5  toward  ^10,  which  Wesley 
owed  to  a  friend  ;  and  three  weeks  later  he 
writes  to  him  again  as  follows  : — 

"Wroote,  January  26,  1725. 

"  Dear  Son, — I  am  so  well  pleased  with 
your  decent  behavior,  or,  at  least,  with  your 
letters,  that  I  hope  I  shall  have  no  occasion 
to  remember  any  more  some  things  that 
are  past ;  and  since  you  have  now  for  some 

*  An  allowance  or  bounty  made,  under  certain  restrictions, 
for  the  assistance  of  poor  scholars. 


64  The  Living  Wesley. 

time  bit  upon  the  bridle,  I  will  take  care 
hereafter  to  put  a  little  honey  upon  it  as 
oft  as  I  am  able  ;  but  then  it  shall  be  of  my 
own  mere  motion,  as  the  last  ^5  was,  for  I 
will  bear  no  rivals  in  my  kingdom. 
"  Your  affectionate  father, 

"  Samuel  Wesley." 

The  meaning  of  this  not  unpleasing, 
although  monitory,  letter  is  not  altogether 
clear.  It  would  seem,  however,  that  the 
father  had  been  solicited  previously  to  give 
some  help  to  his  son — perhaps  by  the 
mother,  possibly  through  some  other  chan- 
nel— and  that  he  had  refused,  accompany- 
ing his  refusal  with  some  admonitions : 
further,  that  the  son  had  taken  his  father's 
reproofs  somewhat  amiss  at  first,  but  had 
latterly  expressed  himself  in  his  letters 
in  a  way  which  satisfied  his  father.  The 
father  had  accordingly  relented,  as  the  let- 
ter shows.  Mr.  Tyerman's  commentary  on 
this  and  the  brief  preceding  note  is  alto- 
gether in  an  exaggerated  tone  of  austerity. 
He  writes  as  if  such  letters  "cast  shadows 


The  Collegian  at  Oxford.  65 

on  the  character "  of  young  Wesley ;  he 
declares,  quite  unwarrantably,  that,  from  the 
age  of  eleven  to  twenty-two,  Wesley  was, 
■  by  his  own  confession,  an  habitual,  if  not 
profane  and  flagrant,  sinner,"  and  that  he 
"  thoughtlessly  contracted  debts  greater 
than  he  had  means  to  pay."  We  must  say 
that  there  is  no  evidence  whatever  to  jus- 
tify such  language  as  this.  Wesley  seems 
always  to  have  kept  at  a  remote  distance 
from  any  thing  like  "  profane  and  flagrant 
sin;"  he  was  "a  sinner,"  as  moral  and  vir- 
tuous youths  are  sinners,  but  only  so  ;  and 
if  he  could  not  make  ends  meet  on  ^40 
a  year,  there  is  no  evidence  whatever 
that  he  "  thoughtlessly  contracted  debts." 
His  sister  Emilia,  writing  to  him  a  few 
months  later,  said,  no  doubt  most  truly : 
"  I  know  you  are  a  young  man  encom- 
passed with  difficulties,  and  have  passed 
through  many  hardships  already,  and  prob- 
ably must  through  many  more  before  you 
are  easy  in  the  world;"  she  adds,  also — ■ 
poor,  half-clad  girl ! — a  noticeable  remark : 
'  I  know  not  when  we  have  had  so  good  a 


66  The  Living  Wesley. 

year,  both  at  Wroote  and  at  Epworth,  as 
this  year ;  but,  instead  of  saving  any  thing 
to  clothe  my  sister  or  myself,  we  are  just 
where  we  were.  .  .  ,  One  thing  I  warn  you 
of — let  not  my  giving  you  this  account  be 
any  hinderance  to  your  affairs.  If  you  want 
assistance  in  any  case,  my  father  is  as  able 
to  give  it  now  as  at  any  time  these  last 
ten  years  ;  nor  shall  we  be  ever  the  poorer 
for  it."  * 

It  is  evident  that  the  sister's  sympathies 
were  heartily  with  her  brother.  There  is, 
in  truth,  no  foundation  whatever  for  the 
imputation  to  John  Wesley,  in  his  earlier 
years  at  Oxford,  of  improvidence  or  unthrift. 
I  take  it  for  granted  that  he  never  incurred 
a  serious  expense,  unless  sometimes  to  pur- 
chase a  book  which  appeared  to  be  needful 
to  his  success  as  a  student.  That  he  had 
any  extravagant  habits  or  tendencies  what- 
ever, there  is  not  the  least  reason  to  sup- 
pose. His  mother  did,  indeed,  urge  him 
gently  to  try  to  save,  probably  because  the 
Rector  would  have  her  put  in  an  admoni- 

*  Tyerman,  vol.  i,  p.  33. 


The  Collegian  at  Oxford.  6j 

tion  to  that  effect ;  but  she  never  approaches 
the  tone  of  censure  in  writing  to  her  son. 
And  if  she  had  seemed  to  incline  that  way, 
wanting  as  she  was,  for  herself  and  her 
family,  almost  the  necessaries  of  life,  and 
not  understanding  fully  a  collegian's  neces- 
sities, it  would  have  been  for  once  no 
great  wonder.  But  there  is  no  such  tone 
in  her  correspondence.  Her  loving  son 
had  talked  of  trying  to  save  a  little  that 
he  might  be  able  to  visit  his  family  ;  she 
gently  reminds  him  that  the  payment  of  his 
debts  was  the  first  thing  to  be  thought  of, 
but  expresses,  at  the  same  time,  the  hope 
that  she  may  be  able  to  bear  his  charges 
home.  "  I  am  not  without  hope,"  she  says 
in  the  letter  from  which  I  have  lately  quoted 
a  few  words,  "  of  meeting  you  next  summer," 
(in  London.)  "  If  you  then  be  willing  to 
accompany  me  to  Wrote,  I  shall  bear  your 
charges  as  God  shall  enable  me." 

To  this  subject  of  young  Wesley's  faults 
and  failings  Mr.  Tyerman  gives  a  whole 
paragraph — a  very  emphatic,  and  not  a 
very  short,  paragraph.     And  yet,  in  the  very 


68  The   Living  Wesley. 

next  paragraph,  and  within  some  half-dozen 
lines  of  saying  that  Wesley  "  had  need  to 
repent  in  dust  and  ashes"  for  his  sins — for 
the  sins  in  particular,  and  among  the  rest, 
of  extravagance  and  thoughtless  improvi- 
dence, by  which  he  had  brought  addition- 
al burdens  on  his  poor,  embarrassed,  and 
struggling  father,  Mr.  Tyerman  goes  on  to 
say  that  "Wesley  was  far  too  noble  and  too 
high-principled  to  seek  admission  into  the 
Christian  ministry  "  merely  as  a  livelihood. 
Surely,  if  he  were  improvident,  extravagant, 
inconsiderate  of  his  father's  circumstances, 
"an  habitual,  if  not  profane  and  flagrant, 
sinner,"  "  without  religious  sentiments,  and 
without  a  religious  aim,"  as  Mr.  Tyerman 
tells  us  he  was,  it  is  not  by  any  means 
incredible  that,  when  he  went  to  college,  it 
might  be  his  intention  to  enter  the  Church 
as  a  profession,  without  any  high  religious 
motive.  I  do  not,  in  the  least,  wish  to  inti- 
mate that  he  did  so  ;  but  it  is  not  consist- 
ent, on  the  one  hand,  to  place  John  Wesley 
so  low  in  respect  of  religion,  if  not  also  of 
morality,  *and,  on  the   other  hand,  to  speak 


The  Collegian  at  Oxford.  69 

of  him  as  so  noble  and  so  high-principled  a 
young  man. 

Leaving  this  point,  however,  let  us  note 
the  indications  of  young  Wesley's  character 
in  the  earlier  years  of  his  college  life  which 
are  afforded  by  the  family  correspondence 
with  which  Mr.  Tyerman  enriches  his  first 
chapter,  "  Wesley  at  Home,  at  School,  and 
at  College."  No  one  can  read  this  corre- 
spondence without  becoming  aware  that 
"Jacky" — the  very  name,  "Jacky,"  might, 
indeed,  be  sufficient  to  settle  that  ques- 
tion— was  by  no  means  the  semi-stoical 
person,  destitute  of  homely  warmth  and 
kindliness,  and  of  natural  interest  and  con- 
cern about  the  little  matters  of  family  life, 
which  some  of  his  critics — which  even  a 
writer  of  such  discrimination  and  insight 
as  Miss  Wedgwood — would  seem  to  have 
supposed  him  to  be.  If  at  a  later  period 
of  his  life,  when  absorbed  and  oppressed 
by  the  care  of  the  religious  movement  at 
Oxford,  he  forgot,  on  his  arrival  from  a 
visit  home,  to  tell  his  brother  Charles  of 
the  details  of  the  family  circumstances,  that 


70  The  Living  Wesley. 

must  be  attributed,  not  in  the  least  to  want 
of  feeling  for  his  parents  and  sisters,  or 
lack  of  interest  in  all  that  really  affected 
them,  but  to  the  weight  and  pressure  at 
the  moment  of  a  most  solemn  religious 
undertaking  and  responsibility.  How  lov- 
ingly and  generously  he  cared  for  his 
mother  and  sisters  through  life — with  what 
depth  and  intensity,  with  what  force  of  rea- 
son and  fact,  and  of  barely  suppressed 
indignation,  he  vindicated  himself,  on  one 
occasion,  from  a  petulant  and  unwar- 
rantable imputation  to  the  contrary — the 
students  of  his  life  will  hardly  fail  to  re- 
member.* In  his  early  days  at  Oxford  he 
kept  up  very  loving  relations  and  corre- 
spondence with  his  sisters.  "  More  than 
once,"  as  Mr.  Tyerman  tells  us,  "when 
requesting  that  his  sisters  would  write  to 
him,  he  playfully  remarks  that,  though  he 
was  so  poor,  he  would  be  able  to  spare 
the  postage  for  a  letter  now  and  then." 
And  writing  to  his  mother  on   the   1st   of 

*  See  his  letter  to  his  sister  Emily,  in  Clarke's  "Wesley 
Family,"  p.  519,  and  in  Mr.  Tyerman,  i,  pp.  424,  5. 


The  Collegian  at  Oxford.  J I 

November,  1724,  from  Oxford,  he  says: 
"  I  should  be  exceedingly  glad  to  keep  up 
a  correspondence  with  my  sister  Emily,  if 
she  were  willing.  I  have  writ  once  or  twice 
to  my  sister  Sukey,  too,  but  have  not  had 
an  answer  either  from  her  or  my  sister 
Hetty,  from  whom  I  have  more  than  once 
desired  the  poem  of  '  The  Dog.'  I  should 
be  glad  to  hear  how  things  go  on  at  Wroote, 
which  I  now  remember  with  more  pleasure 
than  Epworth  ;  so  true  it  is,  at  least  in  me, 
that  the  persons,  not  the  place,  make  home 
so  pleasant."  A  sweeter,  purer  tone  of 
writing  than  this  we  could  hardly  imagine. 
It  will  be  observed  that  the  family  were 
now  living,  not  at  Epworth,  but  at  Wroote, 
the  living  which  his  father  held  with  Ep- 
worth, and  that  this  was  the  reason  of  the 
turn  in  the  last  sentence.  Wroote  itself 
was  a  most  uninviting  place,  very  different 
from  the  pleasant  and  old-fashioned  settled- 
ness  of  the  town  of  Epworth,  with  its 
comfortable  houses  and  goodly  gardens. 
The  letter  closes  by  begging  his  mother's 
and  his  father's   blessing  on  their  "dutiful 


72  The  Living  Wesley. 

son."  It  was  five  months  later  than  the 
date  of  this  letter  that  "  Emilia  Wesley " 
wrote  the  letter  to  her  brother  from  which 
I  have  already  quoted. 

Poor  Emilia,  eldest  of  the  gifted  sisters ! 
Mr.  Kirk  says  of  her,  in  his  "  Mother  of  the 
Wesleys:"  "Her  love  for  her  mother  was 
strong  as  death ;  and  she  regarded  her 
brother  John  with  a  passionate  fondness. 
Though  so  much  younger  than  herself,  she 
selected  him  as  her  '  most  intimate  com- 
panion ;  her  counselor  in  difficulties/  to 
whom  '  her  heart  lay  open  at  all  times.'  " 
Crossed  in  love,  and,  for  some  reason  not 
fully  explained,  but  perhaps  connected  with 
her  love  affair,  irritated  against  her  father, 
her  spirit  chafed  under  the  difficulties  of 
her  situation  ;  but  she  bravely  helped  both 
her  family  and  herself  during  the  years  of 
her  earlier  womanhood.  She  wTas  known 
in  her  later  years  as  Mrs.  Harper,  a  widow, 
and  died  in  the  bosom  of  her  brother's 
Methodism,  in  her  eightieth  year.  Poor 
Sukey.  too,  the  second  sister,  beautiful, 
vivacious,  and  accomplished,  but  whose  lot 


The  Collegian  at  Oxford.  73 

was  far  more  troublous  than  that  of  Emily, 
though  Emily's  was  so  far  from  an  easy  life. 
She  was  in  the  flower  of  her  life  when  her 
brother  referred  to  her.     Some  years  later, 
after  she  had  married  the  wretched  profli- 
gate Ellison,  her  youngest  sister  wrote  of 
her  :  "  Poor  Sukey  !  she  is  very  ill.     People 
think  she  is  going  into  a  consumption.     It 
would  be  well  for  her  if  she  was  where  '  the 
wicked  cease  from  troubling,  and  the  weary 
are    at    rest.' ''     And    again,    poor    Hetty ! 
Her  lot  was   as  sad   as  that  of  her  sister 
Ellison.     The  most  gifted  of  all  the  sisters 
to  whom   it  was  more   natural  to  write   in 
sweet  verse    than    in    prose — though    her 
prose,  like  that  of  all  the  sisters,  was  excel- 
lent— her  sad  story  has  in  part  been  told 
by  Mr.  Kirk   in   the   interesting  volume  to 
which  I  have  referred.      Her  husband  was 
every  way  unsuitable  for  her — an  ignorant, 
illiterate,  and  degraded  plumber.     Meheta- 
bel   (Hetty)  Wesley,  or  Mrs.  Wright,  after 
a  living  martyrdom  of  some  twenty  years, 
died    in   1750,  leaving    not   a  few  beautiful 
verses  behind  her.     To  these  and  to  all  his 


74  The   Living  Wesley. 

sisters  Wesley  never  failed  to  show  himself 
an  affectionate  brother.  How  it  is  that 
there  was  no  reference  to  his  amiable,  but 
deformed,  sister  Mary  in  the  letter  of 
Wesley  I  have  quoted,  it  is  not  possible 
to  guess.  She  became  Mrs.  Whitelamb — 
Whitelamb  havine  been  first  her  father's 
amanuensis,  afterward  his  curate,  and  finally, 
when  he  married,  his  successor  in  the  small 
rectory  of  Wroote — and  she  died  in  1 734, 
one  year  after  her  marriage,  at  the  age  of 
thirty-eight,  having  had,  indeed,  a  short  but 
not  an  unhappy  life.  Keziah,  the  remain- 
ing sister  of  Wesley,  was,  in  1724,  only  four- 
teen years  old. 

Mr.  Badcock,  in  the  "  Westminster  Mag- 
azine," gave  a  picture  of  Wesley  as  he 
was  at  Oxford  in  173.4,  when  he  was  about 
twenty-one  years  of  age.  "He  appeared," 
we  are  told,  "  the  very  sensible  and  acute 
collegian  ;  a  young  fellow  of  the  finest  clas- 
sical taste,  of  the  most  liberal  and  manly 
sentiments."  He  was  at  this  time  a  gen- 
eral favorite.  But  having  taken  his  de- 
gree, and   being  in   prospect   of   presently 


The  Collegian  at  Oxford.  7$ 

taking  orders,  a  decided  change  began  to 
come  over  his  feelings.  He  became  much 
more  serious  and  thoughtful  than  he  had 
been,  and  corresponded  earnestly  both  with 
his  father  and  his  mother  as  to  the  motives 
which  should  govern  him  in  seeking  to 
take  orders ;  as  to  the  studies  which  he 
should  pursue;  and  as  to  the  principles  and 
manner  of  life  which  should  give  character 
to  one  intending  to  enter  the  holy  ministry. 
Mr.  Tyerman  gives  the  most  important  let- 
ters, and  enables  us  to  trace  the  formation 
of  Wesley's  principles.  Thomas  k  Kempis, 
Jeremy  Taylor,  and  William  Law,  as  he 
himself  has  particularly  described,  were  his 
chief  instructors  at  the  first,  and  for  a  con- 
siderable period.  The  asceticism  of  the  first, 
indeed,  was  always  too  somber  for  him. 
But,  on  the  whole,  he  was  greatly  molded 
by  their  influence,  and  became  eventually 
himself  an  ascetic,  with  a  mystical  bias,  (due 
partly  to  Law,)  and  also  an  overpowering 
ritualistic  tendency,  but  at  all  times  free 
from  somberness  of  coloring  or  moroseness 
of  temperament.     Against  Jeremy  Taylor's 


76  The   Living  Wesley. 

gloomy  and  morbid  teachings  as  to  the 
necessity  of  perpetual,  sorrowful  uncer- 
tainty on  the  point  of  the  penitent  sinners 
pardon  and  acceptance,  Wesley's  cheerful 
faith  and  good  sense  revolted  from  the 
first.  Writing  to  his  mother  in  1725,  he 
says:  "  If  we  dwell  in  Christ,  and  Christ 
in  us,  (which  he  will  not  do  unless  we  are 
regenerate,)  certainly  we  must  be  sensible 
of  it.  If  we  can  never  have  any  certainty 
of  our  being  in  a  state  of  salvation,  good 
reason  it  is  that  every  moment  should  be 
spent,  not  in  joy,  but  in  fear  and  trembling ; 
and  then,  undoubtedly,  we  are  in  this  life 
of  all  men  most  miserable.  God  deliver  us 
from  such  a  fearful  expectation  as  this!" 
There,  in  1725,  we  have  already  settled 
within  Wesley's  mind,  notwithstanding  his 
High-Church  indoctrination  from  the  writ- 
ings of  Taylor,  one  of  the  characteris- 
tic doctrines  of  Methodism,  namely,  that 
of  a  conscious  present  salvation  from  guilt 
and  fear,  through  the  indwelling  of  Christ. 
It  is  clear,  also,  that  as  yet  the  modern 
Anglican    doctrine    of  baptismal   regenera- 


The  Collegian  at  Oxford.  J  J 

tion  had    not   been   distinctly  embraced  by 
him. 

It  was  from  the  "Christian's  Pattern" 
of  Thomas  k  Kempis,  and  from  Taylor's 
11  Holy  Living  and  Dying,"  that  he  learned 
the  doctrine  of  entire  Christian  consecra- 
tion and  holiness  which  afterward  developed 
into  the  Methodist  doctrine  of  "  Christian 
Perfection."  "  I  saw,"  he  says  in  a  passage 
which  Mr.  Tyerman  quotes,  "that  simplicity 
of  intention  and  purity  of  affection — one  de- 
sign in  all  we  speak  and  do,  and  one  desire 
ruling  all  our  tempers — are  indeed  the 
wings  of  the  soul,  without  which  she  can 
never  ascend  to  God.  I  sought  after  this 
from  that  hour."  This  was  in  1725,  and 
the  lesson  was  learned  from  the  "  Pattern." 
Again,  he  says,  in  reference  to  the  effect  of 
the  "  Holy  Living  and  Dying:"  "  Instantly 
I  resolved  to  dedicate  all  my  life  to  God — 
all  my  thoughts,  and  words,  and  actions — 
being  thoroughly  convinced  there  was  no 
medium,  but  that  every  part  of  my  life  (not 
some  only)  must  either  be  a  sacrifice  to 
God   or  myself,  that   is,  the   devil."     Truly 


7%  The  Living  Wesley. 

does  Mr.  Tyerman  say,  after  quoting  these 
passages,  and  more  than  we  have  cited : 
"  Here,  then,  we  have  the  turning  point  in 
Wesley's  history.  It  was  not  until  thirteen 
years  after  this  that  he  received  the  con- 
sciousness of  being  saved  through  faith  in 
Christ ;  but  from  this  time  his  whole  aim 
was  to  serve  God  and  his  fellow-creatures, 
and  get  safe  to  heaven." — Pp.  36,  37.  Let 
it  be  noted,  accordingly,  that  1725  was  a 
great  era  in  Wesley's  history.  In  the 
same  year  he  and  his  mother — that  re- 
markable woman  was  his  chief  theological 
tutor — settled  between  them  the  question 
of  predestination  in  the  sense  in  which 
Wesley  always  taught  it.  As  to  faith, 
however,  Wesley  still  remained  altogether 
beclouded.  Faith,  with  him,  at  present 
seems  to  have  meant  little  else  than  right 
opinion.  No  wonder,  after  wandering  for 
so  many  years  in  the  wilderness  because 
misled  by  this  natural  and  prevalent  error, 
that  in  later  life  he  waged  war  so  sharply, 
so  continually,  so  resolutely,  against  this 
error.      As  yet  he   had  no   glimmering  of 


The  Collegian  at  Oxford.  jq 

the  truth  that  a  true  Christian  faith  is 
strictly  personal,  is  "  of  the  operation  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,"  is  a  moral  and  spiritual 
affection  and  act,  or  habit  of  acting,  of  the 
highest  significance  and  potency,  rooting 
the  soul  in  Christ  and  God,  and  includ- 
ing within  itself  implicitly  the  whole  fruit 
of  the  Spirit  of  God. 

Wesley  was  ordained  deacon  in  Septem- 
ber, 1725,  by  Bishop  Potter,  and  preached 
his  first  sermon  at  South  Leigh,  a  small 
village  near  Witney.  In  March,  1726,  he 
was  elected  Fellow  of  Lincoln  College. 
By  this  time  his  increasing  strictness  had 
begun  to  attract  attention  ;  but,  as  yet,  no 
greater  reproach  than  that  of  singular  and 
somewhat  excessive  religiousness  attached 
to  him  in  the  minds  of  any.  No  one  re- 
garded him  as  fanatical ;  most  looked  upon 
him  with  high  respect  as  one  of  the  most 
distinguished  and  conscientious,  one  of  the 
most  accomplished  and  able,  men  in  the 
University.  From  the  time  of  his  receiving 
the  Lincoln  fellowship,  however,  he  was  to 
enter  upon  a  new  stage  of  his  career.     He 


cO  The   Living  Wesley. 

himself  has  told  us  how  he  took  occasion  by 
his  change  of  colleges  to  give  a  resolute, 
though  not  uncourteous,  conge  to  all  his  for- 
mer acquaintances  who  were  not  as  serious 
and  as  earnest  as  himself.  From  this  time, 
accordingly,  Wesley  became  a  religious  dev- 
otee, although  he  took  no  taint  of  sourness, 
and  by  no  means  lost  all  his  smart  pleas- 
antry of  speech.  He  was  at  this  time,  and 
indeed  all  his  life,  as  his  circumstances 
permitted,  a  very  hard  and  very  various 
student.  Oriental  languages,  oratory  and 
poetry,  metaphysics,  logic  and  ethics,  as 
well  as  divinity,  entered  into  his  weekly 
plan  of  study.  Eight  months  after  his  elec- 
tion to  the  fellowship  he  was  appointed 
Greek  Lecturer  in  his  college,  and  Mod- 
erator of  the  Classes.  His  skill  and  read- 
iness in  logic,  it  is  well  known,  were  ex- 
traordinary. "  Leisure  and  I,"  he  said  in  a 
letter  to*  his  brother  Samuel,  written  about 
this  time,  "have  taken  leave  of  one  another. 
I  propose  to  be  busy  as  long  as  I  live,  if 
my  health  is  so  long  indulged  me."  From 
the  time  of  his  receiving  his  first  college- 


The  Collegicm  at  Oxford.  81 

allowances  as  Fellow,  Wesley's  financial 
battle  was  over;  and,  exercising  economy 
as  rigid  over  his  personal  expenses  after- 
ward as  in  his  greatest  poverty  before, 
Wesley  was  able  to  assist  his  brother 
Samuel  in  helping  their  father,  and  to  be, 
to  the  end  of  his  life,  a  benefactor  to  his 
family.  He  never  saved  to  enrich  himself. 
The  summer  after  his  election  he  took  a 
sort  of  holiday,  for  which  he  had  been  long- 
ing, and  for  which  his  parents  and  family 
had  longed  not  less  than  he.  He  spent  it 
at  Epworth  and  Wroote,  acting  as  his 
father's  curate  and  pursuing  his  studies. 


82  The  Living  Wesley. 


CHAPTER  III. 

JOHN     WESLEY,      MISS      KIRKHAM,     AND      MRS. 

PENDARVES,    (AFTERWARD   MRS.   DELANY.) 
p-3_ 

jTlN  1727  we  catch  a  glimpse,  to  us  very 
($k  interesting,  of  Wesley's  relations  with 
others  beyond  his  own  family.  There  re- 
sided at  Stanton,  in  Gloucestershire,  the 
Rev.  Lionel  Kirkham.  This  clergyman 
had  (at  least)  two  daughters  and  a  son. 
Of  the  daughters,  one,  Sarah,  had  married 
the  Rev.  William  Capoon,  (or  Chapone,) 
and  remained,  as  his  wife,  at  Stanton.  She 
is  often  referred  to  in  the  "  Life  and  Corre- 
spondence of  Mrs.  Delany,"  with  whom  she 
was  on  terms  of  intimate  friendship,  as  a 
woman  of  remarkable  talent ;  she  appears 
also  to  have  been  very  fond  of  theolog- 
ical discussions.  Another  (or  the  other) 
daughter,  Betty,  is  referred  to  in  a  quota- 
tion I  shall  immediately  give  from  a  family 
letter.     The  brother  was  an   intimate  col- 


Wesley — Miss  Kirkham — Mrs.  Dela?iy.       83 

lege  friend  of  Wesley's,  and  became,  a 
few  years  later,  one  of  the  original  band 
of  Methodists.  Wesley  had  visited  this 
family,  and  appears  to  have  been  a  very 
welcome  guest  there.  The  brother  was 
evidently  very  anxious  that  Wesley  should 
become  his  brother-in-law,  and  Wesley  ap- 
pears to  have  been  greatly  impressed  with 
the  merits  and  charms  of  Miss  Betty.  In 
a  letter  from  young  Kirkham  to  Wesley, 
dated  February,  1727,  and  which  begins, 
"  W4th  familiarity  I  write,  dear  Jack"  — 
a  letter,  I  must  say,  so  empty,  although 
hearty,  and  so  broadly  rustic  in  tone,  as  to 
surprise  us  from  a  friend  of  Wesley's — 
I  find  the  following  passage  : 

"  Your  most  deserving,  queer  character  ; 
your  worthy  personal  accomplishments ; 
your  noble  endowments  of  mind  ;  your  lit- 
tle and  handsome  person  ;  and  your  oblig- 
ing and  desirable  conversation,  have  been 
the  pleasing  subject  of  our  discourse  for 
some  pleasant  hours.  You  have  been  often 
in  the  thoughts  of  M.  B.,  [Miss  Betty,] 
which  I  have  curiously  observed,  when  with 


84  The   Living  Wesley. 

her  alone,  by  inward  smiles  and  sighs,  and 
abrupt  expressions  concerning  you.  Shall 
this  suffice  ?  I  caught  her,  this  morning, 
in  a  humble  and  devout  posture  on  her 
knees.  I  am  called  to  read  a  '  Spectator ' 
to  my  sister  Capoon.  I  long  for  the  time 
when  you  are  to  supply  fathers  absence. 
Keep  your  counsel,  and  burn  this  when 
perused,"  etc. 

It  is  singular  that  such  a  letter  as  this 
was  not  burned  by  Wesley — very  curious 
that  it  was  preserved  for  a  hundred  and 
forty  years  before  it  was  published  in  the 
"  Wesleyan  Times."  It  opens  the  way, 
however,  to  a  series  of  letters  of  the  great- 
est and  most  curious  interest,  which  reveal 
Wesley  in  a  light  altogether  new,  which 
show  the  workings  of  his  mind,  and  even 
his  style  of  writing,  as  no  one  could  ever 
have  expected  to  see  them,  utterly  contra- 
dicting the  idea  that  he  was  wanting  in 
the  softer  and  warmer  emotions  of  our 
nature — an  idea  which  has  grown  up  from 
the  singleness  with  which,  for  fifty  years, 
he  devoted  himself  to  the  intense  practical 


Wesley — Miss  Kirkhatn — Mrs.  Delany.       S$ 

work  of  an  apostle.  No  greater  mistake 
than  this  could  there  be ;  and  if,  in  his 
later  life,  there  are  appearances  which  seem 
to  lend  a  countenance  to  it,  the  reason  is 
that,  in  proportion  to  his  natural  suscepti- 
bility to  the  warm  attraction  of  intimate 
and  fond  affections,  was  the  rigidity  of 
watchful  suppression  which  he  imposed 
upon  his  temperament  when  the  solemn 
life-work  which  Providence  had  assigned 
to  him  demanded  his  undivided  and  unin- 
termitted  energies. 

The  correspondence  to  which  I  refer  was 
not,  however,  between  Wesley  and  Miss 
Betty  Kirkham — the  lady  referred  to  in  the 
extract  just  given — but  between  Wesley 
and  an  intimate  friend  of  hers,  known  for 
three  quarters  of  a  century  as  a  woman  of 
high  accomplishments  and  of  almost  une- 
qualed  charms  and  attractions,  who  moved 
in  the  best  society  of  the  country,  and  was 
honored  for  half  a  century  and  more  with 
the  intimate  friendship  and  confidence  of 
King  George  III.  and  his  Queen.  I  refer 
to  the  famous  Mrs.  Delany,  whose  history 


86  The  Living  Wesley. 

is  so  well  known  from  her  "  Life  and   Cor- 
respondence," by  Lady  Llanover. 

Mary  Granville,  afterward  Mrs.  Delany, 
was  left  a  widow  after  her  first  marriage, 
early  in  1725,  being  then  twenty-four  years 
of  age.  Her  first  husband's  name  was 
Pendarves.  Her  mother's  house  was  near 
Gloucester,  (not  far  from  Stanton,  Glouces- 
tershire,) where  Mr.  Kirkham  lived,  and 
she  had  become  very  intimate  with  his 
daughters.  One  of  these,  as  I  have  re- 
marked, is  often  referred  to  in  the  "  Life 
and  Correspondence" — the  "sister  Capoon" 
of  the  foregoing  extract — mother-in-law,  in 
after  years,  of  Mrs.  Chapone,  whose  "  Let- 
ters "  were  once  so  well  known.  The  other 
is  never  once  referred  to,  and  does  not  ap- 
pear to  have  been  known  to  Lady  Llanover, 
although  her  ladyship  was  a  grand-niece  (I 
believe)  of  Mrs.  Delany,  or,  at  all  events,  a 
descendant  of  her  sister,  Anne  Granville. 
And  yet  this  other,  as  appears  from  the 
correspondence  to  which  we  have  referred, 
was  a  most  highly-valued  friend  of  Mrs 
Pendarves,  (or  Delany,)  and  a  Christian  of 


Wesley — Miss  Kirkham — Mrs.  Delany.       Sy 

no  ordinary  character.  It  seems,  indeed,  as 
if  all  the  religious  correspondence  and  the 
religious  life  of  this  fascinating  lady  had 
vanished  from  her  "  Remains,"  so  com- 
pletely wanting  are  the  traces  of  this  life,  at 
least  in  the  earlier  portion  of  it.  And  yet 
the  evidence  is  before  us,  that  the  idol  of 
the  Court  circle  was  much  occupied,  at  least 
for  considerable  intervals,  with  religious 
thought  and  feeling,  and  that  between  her 
and  John  Wesley  there  was  carried  on  a 
very  remarkable  correspondence,  deeply 
colored  with  religion. 

What  is  more,  it  is  evident  that  this 
lady  succeeded  to  the  place  in  Wesley's 
thoughts  which  had  been  occupied  by  Miss 
Betty  Kirkham.  The  latter  he  would  have 
married,  if  it  had  been  possible  ;  but  some 
insurmountable  obstacle — it  may  have  been 
a  stern  parental  decree,  or  it  may  have  been 
some  physical  cause — made  such  a  union 
impossible.  Not  concealing  his  deep  sor- 
row at  such  a  barrier  to  his  tenderest  and 
most  treasured  hopes  from  her  friend  and 
his     new    correspondent  —  frankly,    indeed, 


88  The  Living  Wesley. 

avowing  it  throughout — Wesley  would  have 
had  the  dazzling,  but  most  amiable,  widow 
take  her  place,  if  she  would  but  have 
inclined  her  ear  and  heart.  She  was  evi- 
dently not  insensible  to  his  merits  nor  to 
his  admiration.  But  it  was  hardly  likely  at 
any  time  that  she  would  have  accepted  the 
position  of  his  wife.  At  all  events,  after 
several  years  of  correspondence,  a  long  visit 
to  Ireland,  with  its  new  scenes,  its  fashion- 
able absorption,  its  dissipating  stimulants, 
interrupted  the  correspondence  for  some 
time.  Then  she  made  an  attempt,  with 
deep  apologies,  to  renew  it ;  but  Wesley 
had  escaped  from  the  pleasing  snare,  and 
with  stately  but  tender  courtesy,  in  a  final 
letter,  bowed  his  charmer  out  of  his  circle. 

It  was  the  fashion,  in  those  times,  for 
friends  to  have  fictitious  names  by  which  to 
address  and  speak  of  each  other — names 
often  borrowed  from  some  romance  of  the 
time.  Mrs.  Pendarves'  name,  with  many  of 
her  friends,  was  Aspasia ;  her  sister  Anne's 
was  Selina.  Miss  Betty  Kirkham's  was  Var- 
anese.     John  Wesley's,  in  this  correspond- 


Wesley — Miss  Kirkham — Mrs.  Delany.        89 

ence,  was  Cyrus ;  his  brother  Charles's  was 
Araspes.  Lady  Llanover  prints  letters  in 
her  volumes  which  mention  Cyrus,  but  she 
had  no  suspicion  that  Cyrus  was  Wesley. 
What  a  striking  mosaic  relief  would  this 
correspondence  have  introduced  into  her 
first  volume  if  she  had  only  had  the  oppor- 
tunity of  printing  it. 

I  have  stated  that  Varanese  was  the 
fancy  name  of  Betty  Kirkham.  As  such 
it  will  appear  in  the  correspondence,  some- 
times indicated  under  the  initial  V.,  some- 
times as  Var.,  and  again  as  Vnese- 

This  correspondence  has  never  been  pub- 
lished in  its  integrity,  but  considerable 
extracts  from  it  will  be  found  in  the  "  Wes- 
leyan  Methodist  Magazine"  for  1863,  at 
pp.  134-139,  and  2 1 1-2 1 7,  and  Mr.  Tyerman 
has  printed  some  portions  of  it.  By  the 
kindness  of  my  honored  friend,  the  late 
Rev.  Dr.  Hoole,  I  was  favored  with  the  op- 
portunity of  consulting  the  whole,  and  using 
it  for  the  purposes  of  this  study. 

What  strikes  one  as  most  remarkable 
in  this  correspondence  is,  the  variation  of 


90  The  Living  Wesley. 

character  which  the  warm  and  tender  admi- 
ration for  such  a  woman  as  Mrs.  Pendarves 
seems  to  work  in  Wesley.  He,  of  course, 
had  seen  little  of  the  world.  His  home 
was  amid  the  uncultured  rusticity  of  Ep- 
worth  and  Wroote.  At  college  his  means 
had  not  allowed  him  to  mix  with  society 
before  his  fellowship,  and  after  his  fellow- 
ship his  seriousness  had  prevented  his  min- 
gling with  the  fashionable.  But  at  Stanton, 
at  his  friend  Kirkham's  home,  he  had,  no 
doubt,  been  introduced  to  the  Granville 
family.  There  he  had  met  with  Mrs. 
Pendarves,  a  brilliant  lady  of  the  Court, 
familiar  with  all  that  rank  and  fashion 
could  furnish  forth,  yet  sweet  and  modest, 
intelligent  and  inquiring;  as  happy  in  coun- 
try life  as  if  she  had  never  known  a  Court 
or  shone  in  the  assemblies  of  London  ;  as 
if  the  assembly  and  the  opera  were  alto- 
gether strange  to  her  ;  and,  above  all,  inter- 
ested and  concerned  about  matters  of  relig- 
ious devotion  and  duty.  It  is  no  wonder  if 
the  young  collegian,  with  a  mind  open  to 
every  charm  of  refinement  and  goodness,  as 


Wesley — Miss  Kirkham — Mrs.  Dclany.       91 

well  as  to  every  grace  of  person,  was  alto- 
gether dazzled  and  subdued  by  such  an  appa- 
rition as  that  of  Mrs.  Pendarves  in  Stanton. 
Then  she  was  affectionately  and  admiringly 
attached  to  the  lady  whom,  above  all  others, 
he  had  esteemed  and  admired — to  Betty 
Kirkham.  The  result  was,  that  the  young 
Oxford  fellow,  tutor  and  clergyman,  lin- 
guist and  wit,  logician  and  theologian,  stu- 
dent and  devotee,  sought  and  obtained 
permission  to  become  a  correspondent  of 
the  widow  ;  in  this  respect  more  fortunate 
than  any  other  gentleman  of  whom  we  have 
any  information.  But  when  he  undertook 
to  write  to  her,  he  seems  to  have  been  quite 
overset  by  the  quality  and  accomplishments 
of  the  person  to  whom  he  had  undertaken 
to  write.  In  all  other  correspondence,  be- 
fore as  well  as  after  this  period  of  his  life, 
Wesley  is  always  clear,  neat,  and  parsimo- 
nious of  words  ;  simple,  chaste,  and  unaf- 
fected. In  this  correspondence,  on  the 
contrary,  he  is  stilted,  sentimental,  we  had 
almost  said  affected,  certainly  unreal,  cer- 
tainly at    times   fulsome,  when    he    has   to 


92  The  Living  Wesley. 

speak  of  the  lady  herself,  or  makes  any 
attempt  to  turn  a  compliment.  I  almost 
wonder  how  the  lady,  who  never  forgets 
herself,  and  whose  style  is  always  natural 
and  proper,  was  able  to  bear  the  style  in 
which  he  addressed  her.  It  is  only  when  a 
question  of  religious  casuistry  or  of  theol- 
ogy, of  duty  or  of  devotion,  is  to  be  dealt 
with,  that  Wesley  is  himself  again  ;  then,  his 
style  is  singularly  in  contrast  with  what  it  is 
in  respect  to  points  of  personality  or  of  senti- 
ment. His  expressions  of  regard  and  admi- 
ration are  as  high-flown  as  if  they  belonged 
to  a  Spanish  romance  ;  his  discussions  are 
clear  and  close.  It  is  hard  to  understand 
how  the  same  man  could  be  the  writer  of  all. 
I  have  said  that  the  correspondence  with 
Aspasia  (Mrs.  Pendarves)  grew  out  of  the 
relations  between  Wesley  and  Betty  Kirk- 
ham,  and  that  the  fancy  name  of  the  latter 
was  Varanese.  This  is  shown  by  a  letter 
to  Wesley  from  his  sister  Martha,  a  sen- 
tence of  which  is  quoted  by  Mr.  Tyerman, 
and  the  date  of  which  is  five  days  later 
than  that  of  the  one  from  Kirkham  to  Wes- 


Wesley — Miss  Kirkham — Mrs.  Delany.       93 

ley,  from  which  I  have  quoted.  "  When  I 
knew,"  says  she,  "that  you  were  just  re- 
turned from  Worcestershire,  where,  I  sup- 
pose, you  saw  your  Varanese,  I  then  ceased 
to  wonder  at  your  silence,  for  the  sight  of 
such  a  woman,  '  so  known,  so  loved,'  might 
well  make  you  forget  me."  Mr.  Tyerman, 
however,  for  once  has  fallen  short  in  his 
research  as  to  this  case,  for  he  says, 
"  Nothing  more  is  known  of  this  incipient 
courtship;"  and  also,  that  "Wesley  soon 
became  far  too  much  immersed  in  more 
serious  things  to  have  time  to  think  of 
wrooing."  The  correspondence  with  Aspa- 
sia  shows  that  on  Wesley's  side,  at  least, 
there  was  no  withdrawal  from  his  passion 
for  "Varanese;"  that,  years  afterward,  the 
attachment  still  continued  very  strong;  that 
it  was  not  his  fault  if  it  did  not  lead  to  a 
life-long  union  ;  and  that  he  could  and  did 
find  time,  in  the  midst  of  his  most  engross- 
ing engagements,  for  a  correspondence  with 
the  woman  of  his  choice.* 

*  In   his  "Oxford  Methodists,"  p.  2,    Mr.  Tyerman  has, 
ir.  his  notice  of  Robert  Kirkham,  tacitly  recognized  the  truth 


94  The   Living  Wesley. 

It  appears  to  have  been  in  the  summer 
of  1730,  three  years  and  a  half  after  the 
date  of  Robert  KirkhanVs  letter  to  Wesley 
about  his  sister,  while  Mrs.  Pendarves  was 
spending  some  months  in  the  country  with 
her  mother  and  sister,  that  Wesley  first 
made  her  acquaintance  ;  no  doubt,  at  Stan- 
ton, at  the  Kirkhams.  Wesley's  first  letter 
to  her,  accompanying  some  IMS.  which  he 
had  promised  to  send  the  lady,  is  dated 
August  14  of  that  year,  and  in  this  he  refers 
to  "his  dear  Varanese."  It  appears  that 
some  correspondence  of  hers  was  necessary 
in  order  to  explain  the  MS.,  "  the  trifle," 
which  he  was  sending.  In  reference  to  this 
he  says :  "  While  I  was  transcribing  the 
letters,  these  last  monuments  of  the  crood- 
ness  of  my  dear  V.,  I  could  not  hinder 
some  sighs  which,  between  grief  and  shame, 
would  have  their  way.     Not  that  I  was  so 

of  what  is  written  above.  He  seems  to  show  that  Betsy 
Kirkham  became  Mrs.  Wilson,  and  died  in  the  summer  of 
1732.  The  question  with  which  Mrs.  Pendarves,  in  the  let- 
ter which  alludes  to  her  death,  and  which  is  dated  June  28, 
1732,  closes  her  reference  to  her  case,  shows  that  Mrs.  Wil- 
son must  have  been  married  some  years. 


Wesley — Miss  Kirkham — Mrs.  Delany.       95 

much  pained  at  seeing  my  utmost  efforts 
outdone  by  another's  pen,  but  I  could  not, 
I  ought  not  to,  be  unmoved  when  I  observe 
how  unworthv  I  am  of  that  excellent  means 
of  improvement,  etc.  ...  I  trust  so  unusual 
a  blessing  of  Providence  has  not  been 
utterly  useless  to  me.  To  this  I  owe  both 
the  capacity  and  the  occasion  of  feeling 
that  soft  emotion  with  which  I  glow  even 
at  the  moment  when  I  consider  myself  as 
conversing  with  a  kindred  soul  of  my  V." 
In  a  later  letter  (September  14)  he  says, 
"  My  dear  Y.  informs  me  you  are  going 
yet  farther  from  us,  but  cannot  inform  me 
how  soon."  On  the  12th  of  October  she, 
writing  to  him  from  Gloucester,  speaks  of 
"our  inimitable  dear  V.,"  and  longs  for  her 
ability  to  write  on  high  and  serious  sub- 
jects. On  the  19th  of  November,  apolo- 
gizing for  her  infrequent  writing,  she  says, 
''  I  have  not  had  time  even  to  write  to  V." 
In  a  letter  dated  Innocents'  Day  following, 
u  Cyrus"  thus  significantly  expresses  him- 
self: "While  I  am  reflecting  on  this,  I  can't 
but  often   observe  with  pleasure  the  great 


g6  The  Living  Wesley. 

resemblance  between  the  emotion  I  then 
feel  and  that  with  which  my  heart  fre- 
quently overflowed  in  the  beginning  of  my 
intercourse  with  our  dear  V.  Yet  is  there 
a  sort  of  soft  melancholy  mixed  with  it, 
when  I  perceive  that  I  am  making  another 
avenue  for  grief — that  I  am  laying  open  an- 
other part  of  my  soul,  at  which  the  arrows 
of  fortune  may  enter."  There  follows  much 
more  soft  meandering  around  the  same 
subject,  and  to  a  similar  effect. 

On  the  nth  January  following  he  refers 
again  to  the  advantage  he  has  enjoyed  in 
"  the  friendship  of  our  V."  Under  date  April 
4,  following,  Aspasia  refers  to  "  dear  V.," 
and  to  being  "  denied  the  happiness  and  ad- 
vantage of  conversing  with  such  a  friend." 
And,  a  few  days  later,  Cyrus,  after  refer- 
ring to  "  dear  V.,"  adds,  most  suggestively, 
"  Why  it  is  that  I  am  not  allowed  a  stricter 
intercourse  with  such  a  friend  is  a  question 
I  could  never  fully  answer  but  by  another : 
why  is  my  intercourse  with  such  a  friend 
as  Aspasia  or  Selina  allowed?"  Selina,  I 
remark    in    passing,  here    as    elsewhere   in 


Wesley — Miss  Kirkham — Mrs.  Dclany.       97 

the  correspondence,  is  decorously  joined  in 
society  with  Aspasia,  as  Araspes  is  with 
Cyrus.*  But  this  is  a  very  transparent 
artifice  of  correspondence.  So  he  desires, 
in  another  letter,  to  "  shelter  himself  under 
the  protection  of  V.  and  Aspasia  and  Se- 
lina."  In  the  early  summer  of  1  731,  Wesley 
met  V.  somewhere  on  a  visit,  probably  at 
Stanton,  where  he  may  have  been  over 
from  Oxford  "doing  duty."  He  writes  in 
regard  to  this  visit  to  Aspasia  as  follows : 
"  You  will  easily  judge  whether  the  remem- 
brance of  Aspasia  made  that  entertainment 
in  particular  less  agreeable  which  I  enjoyed 
last  week  in  the  almost  uninterrupted  con- 
versation of  dear  V."  "  On  this  spot  she 
sat,"  "along  this  path  she  walked,"  "here 
she  showed  that  lovely  instance  of  conde- 
scension," were  reflections  which,  though 
but  extremely  obvious,  could  not  be  equally 

*  For  example :  "  The  esteem  of  Araspes  as  well  as  Cyrus 
must  ever  attend  both  Aspasia  and  Selina."  This  is  a  P.  S. 
to  a  letter  from  Cyrus.  So  the  lady  closes  one  of  her  letters 
thus :  "  Araspes  may  justly  claim  our  service  and  esteem. 
Selina  joins  with  Aspasia  in  being  to  Cyrus  a 

"  Faithful  and  Obliged  Friend." 
1 


98  The  Living  Wesley. 

pleasing,  and  gave  a  new  degree  of  beauty 
to  the  charming  arbor,  the  fields,  the 
meadows,  and  Horrel  (?)  itself."  In  her 
reply,  she  says :  "  I  will  not  say  I  envied 
either  Va.  or  Cyrus  those  moments  they 
passed  together  ;  but  happy  should  1  have 
been  to  have  shared  them  with  you.  How 
I  please  myself  with  the  thought  that  I  was 
not  quite  forgot  at  that  interview.  Perhaps 
I  was  wished  for."  In  one  place  the  pas- 
sionate religious  fervor  of  Miss  Kirkham  is 
shown  by  some  words  which  Wesley  quotes 
from  her.  "  I  do  not  wonder,"  he  says,  "that 
Aspasia  is  thus  minded,  any  more  than  I 
did  at  the  temper  of  dear  Vaese*  under  the 
sharpest  pain  that  an  embodied  spirit  can 
know.  You  will  easily  take  knowledge  of 
those  words,  if  you  have  not  heard  them  be- 
fore :  '  When  I  was  in  the  greatest  of  my 
pains,  if  my  strength  would  have  allowed,  I 
would  gladly  have  run  out  into  the  streets 
to  warn  all  I  met  that  they  should  save 
themselves  from  pain  sharper  than  mine/"* 

*  From  several  references  in  the  letters,  it  would  appear 
that  Miss  Kirkham  (Mrs.  Wilson)  was  by  no  means  an  habit- 


Wesley — Miss  Kirkham — Mrs.  Delany.       99 

Mrs.  Pendarves  was  three  years  older 
than  Wesley,  and  was,  it  is  evident  enough, 
regarded  by  her  country  friends  as  a  sort 
of  superior  being.  When  she  allowed  the 
correspondence  to  begin,  she  probably  had 
no  idea  that  any  warm  affections  would  be 
stirred  in  the  course  of  it.  Wesley's  ear- 
liest effusions,  however,  must  have  excited 
in  her  some  suspicion  as  to  how  matters 
might  turn ;  and,  before  the  correspond- 
ence came  to  an  end,  it  would  seem  that 
a  tone  of  decidedly  warmer,  more  natural, 
and  more  confidential  friendship  gave  char- 
acter to  her  letters.  Her  own  religious 
sensibilities,  besides,  were  more  awakened ; 
and,  as  she  became  more  earnest  and  con- 
fidential, the  power  of  Wesley's  writing 
greatly  grew.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that 
he  did  at  one  time  cherish  the  aspiration 
that  Mrs.  Pendarves  might  join  her  lot  with 
his.  Her  second  husband  was  an  Irish 
dean  and  divine,  neither  so  well-born  and 

ual  sufferer  from  illness  or  pain,  but  enjoyed  good  ordinary- 
health.  The  date  of  the  letter  last  quoted  is  July  24,  1731. 
A  year  later  the  lady — then,  and  also  at  the  date  of  the  let- 
ter quoted,  Mrs.  Wilson — had  died  altogether  unexpectedly. 


ioo  The   Living  Wesley. 

bred  nor  so  distinguished  or  useful  a  man 
as  Wesley.  But  Wesley,  wedded  in  1732 
to  Mrs.  Pendarves,  might  have  become  a 
very  different  man  from  what  he  did  be- 
come. The  following  passage  in  a  long  let- 
ter of  Wesley's,  dated  July  24,  1731,  is  the 
nearest  approach  to  a  proposal  of  marriage 
contained  in  this  correspondence.  One 
broad  hint  has  been  quoted  already. 

"  Is  it  no  hurt  to  rob  you  of  your  time, 
for  which  there  is  no  equivalent  but  eter- 
nity? on  the  use  of  every  moment  of  which 
more  than  a  world  depends  ?  to  turn  your 
very  sweetness  of  temper  against  you  ?  on 
this  very  account  to  encroach  on  you  with 
so  much  cruelty?  to  force  you  to  stand  still 
so  many  hours,  when  you  are  most  ardent 
to  press  forward  ?  nay,  to  strike  whole  days 
out  of  your  existence,  while  He  that  sitteth 
in  heaven  sees  that  all  the  kingdoms  he 
hath  made  are  vile  compared  to  the  worth 
of  one  particle  of  them  !  O  God,  hath  thy 
wisdom  prepared  a  remedy  for  every  evil 
under  the  sun  ?  and  is  there  none  for  this  ? 
Must  Aspasia   ever  submit   to   this    insup- 


Wesley — Miss  KirkJiam — Mrs.  Delany.      ioi 

portable  misfortune  ?  Every  time  a  gay 
wretch  wants  to  trifle  away  part  of  that  in- 
valuable treasure  which  Thou  hast  lent  him, 
shall  he  force  away  a  part  of  hers  too  ?  tear 
another  star  from  her  crown  of  glory  ?  O, 
'tis  too  much  indeed  !  Surely  there  is  a  way 
to  escape;  the  God  whom  you  serve  point 
it  out  to  you  !" 

This  was  certainly  opening  the  way  skill- 
fully and  clearly  for  future  advances,  if  due 
responsiveness  had  been  shown  by  the  lady. 
Her  next  letter,  like  the  one  preceding,  is 
warmly  kind  and  religiously  earnest,  by  no 
means  likely  to  discourage  her  correspond- 
ent. The  one  following,  dated  August  26, 
was  written  just  on  the  eve  of  her  jour- 
ney and  voyage  to  Ireland,  and  is  still  very 
kind,  although,  in  the  postscript,  a  stringent 
injunction  is  given,  not  the  first  she  had 
given  of  the  same  kind  in  her  postscripts, 
that  all  her  letters  should  be  burned,  and 
that  Cyrus  should  make  use  of  no  epithet 
before  her  name.  This  letter  Wesley  an- 
swered at  length,  (September  28,)  but  re- 
ceived no  reply.     It  can  hardly  be  doubted 


102  The  Living  Wesley.- 

that  he  wrote  other  letters  afterward  not 
contained  in  this  series,  for  he  often  wrote 
two  letters  for  her  one ;  and  he  was  the 
more  likely  to  do  so  as  she  was  in  Ireland, 
and  as  the  direction  in  her  last  had  been, 
11  When  you  write  t-o  me,  which  I  hope  will 
be  soon,  direct  your  letter  to  my  sister  at 
Gloucester,  and  she  will  take  care  to  convey 
it  to  me."  But  he  still  received  no  reply, 
though  many  months  had  passed  away. 
Writing  to  her  sister  from  Dublin  the  fol- 
lowing spring,  (March  n,)  when  nearly  six 
months  had  passed  away,  she  says  : 

"  Cyrus  by  this  time  has  blotted  me  out 
of  his  memory;  or, if  he  does  remember  me, 
it  can  only  be  to  reproach  me.  What  can  I 
say  for  myself?  What  can  I  indeed  say  to 
myself,  that  have  neglected  so  extraordi- 
nary a  correspondent  ?  I  only  am  the  suf- 
ferer, but  I  should  be  very  sorry  to  have 
him  think  my  silence  proceeded  from  neg- 
ligence. I  declare  'tis  want  of  time  !  Then 
there's  poor  Sally*  too,  who  I  think  of 
every  day,  but    cannot  find  a  moment   to 

*  Mrs.  Chapone. 


Wesley — Miss  Kirkham — Mrs.  Del  any.       103 

tell  her  so  ;  though  soon  I  will  endeavor  to 
acquit  myself  in  a  proper  manner  to  them 
both.  I  can't  put  myself  into  better  hands 
for  making  an  excuse  for  me  than  yours." ** 

Precisely  twelve  months  later,  in  another 
letter  to  her  sister,  still  from  Ireland,  she 
thus  writes  : 

"  As  for  the  ridicule  Cyrus  has  been 
exposed  to,  I  do  not  at  all  wonder  at  it. 
Religion  in  its  plainest  dress  suffers  daily 
from  the  insolence  and  ignorance  of  the 
world  ;  then  how  should  that  person  escape 
who  dares  to  appear  openly  in  its  cause? 
He  will  meet  with  all  the  mortification  such 
rebels  are  able  to  give,  which  can  be  no 
other  than  that  of  finding  them  willfully 
blinding  themselves,  and  running  headlong 
into  the  gulf  of  perdition — a  melancholy 
prospect  for  the  honest-hearted  man  who 
earnestly  desires  the  salvation  of  his  fellow- 
creatures."  f 

It  was  not,  however,  till  the  summer  of 
1 734,  after  an  interval  of  nearly  three  years, 

*  Mrs.  Delany's  "Life  and  Correspondence,"  vol.  i,  p.  343. 
\  Ibid.,  p.  410. 


104  The  Living  Wesley. 

that  Mrs.  Pendarves  found  time  to  write  to 
her  Oxford  friend.  By  this  time  she  had 
returned  to  England.  Her  first  words  in- 
dicate the  feeling  of  the  letter :  "  I  never 
began  a  letter  with  so  much  confusion  to 
any  body  as  I  do  this  to  Cyrus/'  Her 
apologies  are  deep,  and  no  doubt  sincere. 
She  had  "  at  last  broken  through "  the 
shame  and  reluctance  to  write  which  her 
long  delay  and  neglect  had  produced,  and 
was  ready  to  "  suffer  any  reproach  rather 
than  lose  the  advantage  of  Cyrus's  friend- 
ship." Things,  however,  had  gone  too  far ; 
and  the  Cyrus  of  1734  was  a  man  of 
stronger  character  and  more  experience,  as 
well  as  of  wider  influence  and  of  higher 
position  as  a  spiritual  teacher  and  leader, 
than  the  Cyrus  of  173 1.  He  will  not  renew 
the  correspondence,  and  it  may  be  doubted 
whether  Cyrus  and  Aspasia  ever  met  again* 
His  voyage  to  America  soon  intervened, 
and  the  whole  color  of  his  life  was  com- 
pletely changed. 

*   Mrs.  Delany's  "Life  and  Correspondence,"   volume  i, 
page  175. 


Wesley — Miss  Kirkham — Mrs.  Ddauy.      105 

The  contrast  between  the  beginning  and 
the  end  of  this  correspondence  is  striking, 
and  suggests  that  a  great  development  had 
in  the  meantime  taken  place  in  Wesley's' 
character.  The  first  letter  of  all  bears  the 
signature  "J.  W.,"  and  begins  with  the  form- 
al "  Madam  "  of  the  time.  It  is  tolerably 
sentimental  and  high-Mown  ;  but  it  is  noth- 
ing to  the  second,  which  is  addressed  to 
"Aspasia,"  and  which  properly  begins  the 
Cyrus  and  Aspasia  series.  We  transcribe 
a  part  of  it,  observing  only  that  it  is  in 
reply  to  one  from  Aspasia,  in  which  she 
acknowledged  the  MS.  and  letters  he  had 
sent  her  with  his  first.  First  he  thanks  her 
in  elaborate  circumlocution  for  her  letter  to 
him — a  letter  complimentary  indeed,  but 
destitute  of  any  real  matter  or  genuine 
thought  whatever — and  then  proceeds  : — 

"  It  convinces  me  that  it  was  possible  I 
should  enjoy  a  higher  pleasure  than  even 
your  conversation  gave  me.  If  your  under- 
standing could  not  appear  in  stronger  light 
than  when  it  brightened  the  dear  hill,  the 
fields,  the  arbor,  I  am  now  forced  to  confess 


106  The  Living  Wesley. 

your  temper  could.  You  even  then  showed 
but  half  your  goodness. 

"  I  spent  some  very  agreeable  moments 
last  night  in  musing  on  this  delightful 
subject,  and  thinking  to  how  little  disad- 
vantage Aspasia  or  Selina  would  have  ap- 
peared even  in  that  faint  light  which  the 
moon,  glimmering  through  the  trees,  poured 
on  that  part  of  our  garden  in  which  I  was 
walking.  How  little  would  the  eye  of  the 
mind  that  surveyed  them  have  missed  the 
absent  sun !  What  darkness  could  have 
obscured  gentleness,  courtesy,  humility — 
could  have  shaded  the  ima^e  of  God  !  Sure 
none  but  that  which  shall  never  dare  to 
approach  them  ;  none  but  vice,  which  shall 
ever  be  far  away  ! " 

Such  compliments  as  these  are  singularly 
elaborate,  and  cumbrous,  and  obscure  ;  but 
yet  John  Wesley,  the  master  of  simple 
manliness  of  style,  wrote  this  and  much 
more,  in  the  following  letters,  not  inferior 
in  its  kind.  Such  was  Wesley  in  1730 
and  1 73 1,  as  a  "squire  of  dames,"  and,  in 
particular,    as    the    fascinated    admirer    of 


Wesley — Miss  Kirk  ham — Airs.  Delany.     107 

Mrs.  Pendarves.  In  one  place  he  even  goes 
so  far  as  to  place  his  orthodoxy  in  question 
when  paying  his  excessive  tribute  to  this 
lady.  "  Though,"  he  says,  "  I  would  fain 
be  nearer  you,  though  I  do  what  I  can  (I 
fear  not  always)  to  overtake  you  ;  yet  so 
hard  is  it  to  lay  aside  every  weight — these 
follies  do  so  easily  beset  me — that  I  find  it 
will  not  be — the  penitent  cannot  avoid 
being  left  behind  by  the  innocent ! "  The 
date  of  this  notable  sentiment  is  July  24, 
1 73 1,  twelve  months  after  the  first  acquaint- 
ance. It  occurs  in  a  long,  earnest,  religious, 
and,  on  the  whole,  impressive  letter.  The 
following  sentiments  in  an  earlier  letter 
(October  24,  1730,)  also  appear  to  us  to 
be  very  curious  in  an  Oxford  clergyman 
and  fellow — an  Oxford  tutor  and  religious 
leader : — 

"  What  the  advantage  of  being  present 
with  you  must  be,  may  be  easily  conceived 
from  what  you  do  even  when  absent.  To 
your  good  wishes  I  can't  but,  in  a  great 
measure,  impute  it  that  we  should  exactly 
find   our  way  through   a  country  in  which 


108  The  Living  Wesley. 

we  were  utter  strangers,  and  for  some  miles 
without  either  human  creature  or  day  or 
moon  or  stars  to  direct  us.  By  so  many 
ties  of  interest,  as  well  as  gratitude,  am  I 
obliged,  whether  present  or  absent,  to  be, 
madam,  your  most  obliged  and  most  obe- 
dient servant." 

Such  was  the  style  in  which  Wesley  had 
paid  his  epistolary  court  to  Mrs.  Pendarves. 
Of  course  there  was  more  substantial  mat- 
ter than  such  as  we  have  quoted.  Some 
of  the  letters  discuss  at  length  questions 
of  religious  duty  and  religious  experience, 
and  there  is  not  a  little  earnest  religious 
exhortation.  But  yet  such  writing  as  I 
have  lately  quoted  occupies  a  large  space 
in  this  correspondence.  The  letter  written 
by  Wesley  in  1734,  in  reply  to  Mrs.  Pen- 
darves' letter  of  profound  apology,  shows 
a  higher  style  of  writing,  and  much  more 
dignity  of  character. 

"Alas,  Aspasia!"  he  rejoins,  "are  you 
indeed  convinced  that  I  can  be  of  any  serv- 
ice to  you  ?  I  fear  you  have  not  sufficient 
ground  for  such  a  conviction.     Experience 


Wesley — Miss  Kirkkam — Mrs.  Dclany.     109 

has  shown  how  much  my  powrer  is  short  of 
my  will.  For  some  time  I  flattered  myself 
with  the  pleasing  hope  ;  but  I  grew  more 
and  more  ashamed  of  having  indulged  it. 
You  need  not  the  support  of  so  weak  a 
hand.  How  can  I  possibly  think  you  do, 
(though  that  thought  tries  now  and  then 
to  intrude  itself  still,)  since  you  have  so 
long  and  resolutely  thrust  it  from  you  ?  I 
dare  not,  therefore,  blame  you  for  so  doing. 
Doubtless  you  acted  upon  cool  reflection. 
You  declined  the  trouble  of  writing,  not 
because  it  was  a  trouble,  but  because  it  was 
a  needless  one.  And  if  so,  what  injury 
have  you  done  yourself?  As  for  me,  you 
do  me  no  injury  by  your  silence.  It  did, 
indeed,  deprive  me  of  much  pleasure,  and 
of  a  pleasure  from  which  I  ought  to  have 
received  much  improvement.  But  still,  as 
it  was  one  I  had  no  title  to  but  your  good- 
ness, to  withdraw  it  was  no  injustice.  I 
sincerely  thank  you  for  what  is  past ;  and 
may  the  God  of  my  salvation  return  it  sev- 
enfold into  your  bosom  !  And  if  ever  you 
should   please    to    add    to   those    thousand 


no  The  Living  Wesley. 

obligations  any  new  ones,  I  trust  they  shall 
neither  be  unrewarded  by  Him  nor  unwor- 
thily received  by  Aspasia's  faithful  friend 
and  servant,  Cyrus. — Araspes,  too,  hopes 
you  will  never  have  reason  to  tax  him  with 
ingratitude.     Adieu!" 

Mr.  Tyerman  (as  I  have  intimated) 
misses  the  full  meaning  of  this  interesting 
and  suggestive  episode  in  Wesley's  life. 
He  quotes,  indeed,  Aspasia's  first  letter  in 
full,  as  published  in  the  "  Wesleyan  Times  " 
in  1866;  and  he  adds  the  interesting  fact 
that  on  the  fly-leaf  of  that  letter  Selina 
added  a  P.S.,  informing  Wesley  that  her 
sister  was  about  to  visit  Bath,  and  inti- 
mating to  him  that  he  had  best  write  to 
her  to  ascertain  her  movements ;  telling 
him  also  that  Varanese  had  sent  him  a  let- 
ter by  the  carrier  a  fortnight  before,  and 
wished  to  know  whether  it  had  come  safe 
to  hand.  But  he  quite  misinterprets  the 
latter  part  of  that  letter.  Aspasia  writes  : 
"If  you  have  any  affairs  that  call  you  to 
Gloucester,  don't,  forget  that  you  have 
two  pupils  who  are  desirous  of  improving 


Wesley — Miss  Kirkham — Mrs.  Delcuiy.     1 1 1 

their  understanding,  and  that  friendship  has 
already  taught  them  to  be,  sir,  your  most 
sincere,  humble  servants.  My  companion 
joins  me  in  all  I  have  said,  as  well  as  in 
service  to  Araspes."  The  "  companion," 
Mr.  Tyerman  says,  was  probably  Mrs.  Gran- 
ville, (with  whom  also  Wesley  correspond- 
ed,) *  or  Sarah  Kirkham.  But  there  is  no 
evidence  that  Wesley  had  any  particular 
friendship  with  Sarah  Kirkham,  who  had, 
indeed,  for  years,  been  Mrs.  Capon,  Capoon, 
or  Chapone,  and  Mrs.  Granville  is  clearly 
out  of  the  question.  The  "  companion  "  is 
evidently  the  other  "  pupil,"  and  that  other 
was  "  Aspasia's  "  sister  "  Selina." 

I  have  dwelt  thus  at  length  upon  this 
correspondence,  not  merely  because  of  the 
curious  interest  which  attaches  to  the  let- 
ters, but  because  they  reveal  a  background 
of  natural  character  which  enables  us  to 
see  in  a  much  truer  light  the  matured,  and 
in  good  part  transformed,  Wesley  of  later 

*  Mrs.  Delany's  "  Life  and  Correspondence,"  vol.  i,  p.  269. 
The  date  of  the  one  letter  to  Mrs.  Granville,  of  which  we  have 
any  knowledge,  is  "Lincoln  College,  December  12,  1730." 


H2  The  Living  Wesley. 

years.  It  reveals  to  us  the  extreme  natural 
susceptibility  of  Wesley  to  whatever  was 
graceful  and  amiable  in  woman,  especially 
if  united  to  mental  vigor  and  moral  excel- 
lence. He  was  naturally  a  woman-wor- 
shiper— at  least,  a  worshiper  of  such  women. 
He  had  been  brought  up  in  the  society  of 
clever  and  virtuous  women,  his  sisters  ;  and 
it  seems  as  if  he  could  at  no  time  of  his 
life  dispense  with  the  exquisite  and  stim- 
ulating pleasure  which  he  found  in  their  so- 
ciety and  correspondence.  An  almost  rev- 
erent courtesy,  a  warm  but  pure  affection, 
a  delicate  but  close  familiarity,  marked 
through  life  his  relations  with  the  good 
and  gifted  women — gifted  they  were,  for 
the  most  part — with  whom  he  maintained 
friendship  and  correspondence.  If  Miss 
Wedgwood  had  been  aware  of  this  fact, 
some  points  in  her  estimate  of  Wesley's 
character  would  have  varied  from  what  she 
has  presented  to  her  readers. 


His  Theological  Views,  etc.,  at  Oxford.        1 1 3 


CHAPTER  IV. 

Wesley's   theological   views   and    relig- 
ious CHARACTER  AT  OXFORD,  1731-1735. 

Obi 

MUST  not  pass  away  from  the  subject 


i 


of  Mr.  Wesley's  correspondence  with 
Mrs.  Pendarves  without  saying  a  few  words 
as  to  the  light  which  the  letters  throw  upon 
the  stage  of  development  at  which  Wesley 
had  arrived  in  his  doctrinal  views  at  the 
time  (1 730-1 731)  when  they  were  written. 
As  we  have  only,  besides,  a  somewhat  insig- 
nificant sermon  or  two  of  this  period  from 
which  to  draw  our  inferences,  they  are,  in  this 
point  of  view,  very  welcome  to  the  student 
of  Wesley's  character  in  its  whole  unfolding. 
I  may  say,  then,  in  general,  that  the  the- 
ology of  these  letters  is  utterly  unevangel- 
ical.  There  is  in  them  very  little  savor  of 
Christ's  presence  ;  there  is  absolutely  noth- 
ing of  the  righteousness  of  faith.  The  way 
to  holiness  and  happiness  is  the  use  of  the 

8 


H4  The  Living  Wesley. 

"  instituted "  means ;  all  these  should  be 
continually  used — used  to  the  full — because 
the  more  means  there  are,  and  are  made 
use  of,  the  more  grace  must  needs  come  to 
the  teachable  and  humble  Christian  who 
uses  them.  But  of  Christ  and  of  faith 
there  is  nothing.  A  servile  legalism — a 
plodding  ritualism,  which  the  performer 
must  have  continually  felt  to  be  in  danger 
of  degenerating  into  perfunctoriness — con- 
stitutes the  whole  "way  of  salvation."  As- 
pasia  mentions  a  case  of  religious  distress 
in  a  female  friend  of  hers.  Wesley  recom- 
mends the  diligent  use  of  all  the  means  of 
grace — the  "  instituted  "  means — as  a  rem- 
edy for  her  state.  Aspasia  rejoins  that  she 
had  already  tried  these  and  was  none  the 
better,  but  rather  the  worse.  Her  spiritual 
adviser  had  no  genuine  remedy  to  prescribe 
for  such  a  case  as  this.  He  was  a  "miser- 
able comforter"  and  an  ignorant  physician. 
Cases  of  casuistry  as  to  Sunday  employ- 
ments and  some  other  matters  Wesley  dis- 
cussed, and  more  or  less  resolved  with  no 
little  skill.     His  view  of  religious  consecra- 


His  Theological  Views,  etc.,  at  Oxford.       1 1 5 

tion,  too,  was  high.  But  of  evangelical  faith 
and  experience  he  knew  nothing.  Further 
evidence  as  to  Wesley's  theological  views  at 
this  period  of  his  life  is  afforded  by  several 
sermons  which,  although  not  printed  at  the 
time,  were  printed  many  years  afterward,  at 
various  times,  in  the  "  Methodist  Maga- 
zine," and  of  which  some  account  is  given 
by  Mr.  Tyerman.  From  these  it  appears 
that  Wesley  taught  between  1731  and  1734 
a  high  doctrine  of  Christian  holiness,  both 
active  and  passive;  that  he  taught  the  duty 
of  at  least  weekly,  if  not  also,  when  circum- 
stances allowed,  of  daily  communion  ;  and 
that  he  taught  the  duty  of  confession  as  a 
preparation  for  the  Communion  ;  that  he 
also  would  have  the  wine  in  the  Holy  Com- 
munion mixed  with  water ;  but  that  he  did 
not  entertain  any  such  view  respecting  the 
real  and  corporeal  presence  in  or  under 
the  sacramental  elements  of  the  Incarnate 
Christ,  whether  by  transubstantiation  or 
consubstantiation,  as  is  now  taught  by 
high  Anglicans.  On  the  point  of  confes- 
sion, Mr.  Tyerman  quotes  a  very  racy  pas- 


n6  The   Living  Wesley. 

sage  from  a  letter  of  Wesley's  elder  sister 
Emily,  to  whose  love  for  her  brother  we 
have  already  referred  : — 

"  To  lay  open  the  state  of  my  soul  to 
you,  or  any  of  our  clergy,  is  what  I  have  no 
inclination  to  do  at  present;  and  I  believe  I 
never  shall.  I  shall  not  put  my  conscience 
under  the  direction  of  mortal  man  frail  as 
myself.  To  my  own  Master  I  stand  or  fall. 
Nay,  I  scruple  not  to  say  that  all  such  de- 
sire in  you  or  any  other  ecclesiastic  seems 
to  me  like  Church  tyranny,  and  assuming 
to  yourselves  a  dominion  over  your  fellow- 
creatures  which  was  never  designed  you  by 
God.  ...  I  further  own  that  I  do  not  hold 
frequent  communion  necessary  to  salvation, 
nor  a  means  of  Christian  perfection.  But 
do  not  mistake  my  meaning :  I  only  think 
communing  every  Sunday,  or  very  fre- 
quently, lessens  our  veneration  for  that 
sacred  ordinance,  and,  consequently,  our 
profiting  by  it."  * 

There  speaks  out  the  keen,  strong  sense 
of  the  eldest  of  the  Wesley  sisters,  couched 

*  "Tyerman,"  page  94. 


His  Theological  Views,  etc.,  at  Oxford.       1 1 7 

in  the  admirable  English,  pure,  clear,  and 
strong,  which  the  whole  family  seem  to 
have  caught  from  their  mother.  Emily 
would  not  make  a  father-confessor  of  her 
younger  brother  or  of  any  man.  She  had 
not  only  Puritan  blood  in  her  veins,  but 
some  of  the  Puritan  spirit  for  her  inherit- 
ance. Wesley  himself,  in  a  passage  quoted 
by  his  biographer,  has  truly  pointed  out 
what  was  the  essential  defect  of  his  theol- 
ogy and  his  preaching  from  1727  onward, 
till  his  great  change :  "  I  preached  much, 
but  saw  no  fruit  of  my  labor.  Indeed,  it 
could  not  be  that  I  should  ;  for  I  neither 
laid  the  foundation  of  repentance  nor  of 
preaching  the  Gospel,  taking  it  for  granted 
that  all  to  whom  I  preached  were  believers, 
and  that  many  of  them  needed  no  repent- 
ance." *  This  was  as  true  of  Wesley's 
teaching  and  preaching  in  1735  as  m  1 728. 

Wesley,  indeed,  went  to  consult  a  new 
teacher,  and  entered  upon  a  new  phase  in 
the  formation  of  his  theological  views,  in 
1732;  but  the  new  teacher  was  not  likely 

*  "Tyerman,"  vol.  i,  page  57. 


1 1 8  The  Living  Wesley. 

to  enlighten  his  darkness  on  the  points  to 
which  I  have  referred.  He  visited  William 
Law  in  the  year  we  have  named,  and,  on 
his  recommendation,  read  the  "  Theologia 
Germanica,"  Tauler's  works,  and  other  mys- 
tic writings.  Thus  was  mysticism  grafted 
on  High-Churchmanship.  Under  the  influ- 
ence of  Law,  Wesley  seems  to  have  contin- 
ued until  after  he  went  to  America.  It  was 
in  1726  that  Law  published  his  "Christian 
Perfection"  and  "Serious  Call;"  and  it 
must  have  been  about  the  year  1728  or 
1729  that  Wesley  first  read  these  fine  devo- 
tional and  practical  books ;  it  was  certainly 
before  1730.*  When,  in  1732,  Wesley  vis- 
ited Law,  the  latter  had  just  begun  to  be  a 
student  of  the  mystical  writers.  It  appears 
to  have  been  about  two  years  later  that 
Law  entered  upon  his  course  of  decided 
deterioration  and  increasing  confusion  by 
becoming  addicted  to  the  study  of  Behmen. 
In  one  respect,  Law's  influence  was  an- 
tagonistic to  the  errors  of  externalism — the 
servile    devotion    to    means    and    rites — in 

*  Wesley's  "Works,"  vol.  iii,  p.  71. 


His  Theological  Viezvs,  etc.,  at  Oxford.        1 19 

which  Wesley  had  been  ensnared.  "  A  con- 
templative man/'  says  Wesley,  meaning, 
by  this  contemplative  man,  his  instructor 
Law,  "convinced  me,  still  more  than  I  was 
convinced  before,  that  outward  works  are 
nothing,  being  alone  ;  and,  in  several  con- 
versations, instructed  me  how  to  pursue 
inward  holiness,  or  a  union  of  the  soul 
with  God."  Nevertheless,  the  essential  self- 
righteousness  of  mysticism,  its  real  self- 
involution,  its  essentially  Christless  and 
unevangelical  character,  are  well  shown  by 
Wesley  in  his  criticism  of  Law's  teaching, 
which  immediately  follows  what  we  have 
just  quoted.  After  saying  that  Law's 
teachings,  in  reality,  went  to  discourage  him 
from  doing  outward  works  at  all,  (as  is  the 
inevitable  tendency  of  all  mysticism,)  he 
adds:  "He  recommended  (to  supply  what 
was  wanting  in  them)  mental  prayer  and  the 
like  exercises,  as  the  most  effectual  means 
of  purifying  the  soul  and  uniting  it  with 
God.  Now  these  were,  in  truth,  as  much 
my  own  works  as  visiting  the  sick  or  cloth- 
ing the  naked;   and  the   union  with   God, 


120  The  Living  Wesley. 

thus  pursued,  was  as  really  my  own  right- 
eousness as  any  I  had  before  pursued  under 
another  name."* 

Law's  semi-mysticism,  however,  was  at 
least,  under  Providence,  one  means  of  de- 
livering him  from  the  excessive  traditional- 
ism in  which  he  had  been  entangled. 

"  I  had,"  he  himself  says,  "  bent  the  bow 
too  far,  in  that  direction,  by  making  antiq- 
uity a  co-ordinate,  rather  than  a  subordi- 
nate, rule  with  Scripture ;  by  admitting 
several  doubtful  writings  ;  by  extending  an- 
tiquity too  far ;  by  believing  more  prac- 
tices to  have  been  universal  in  the  ancient 
Church  than  ever  were  so ;  by  not  consid- 
ering that  the  decrees  of  a  provincial  synod 
could  bind  only  that  province,  and  the 
decrees  of  a  general  synod  only  those  prov- 
inces whose  representatives  met  therein ; 
that  most  of  those  decrees  were  adapted 
to  particular  times  and  occasions,  and  con- 
sequently, when  those  occasions  ceased, 
must  cease  to  bind  even  those  provinces." 
"These  considerations,"  Wesley  adds,  "  in- 

*  "  Works,"  vol.  iii,  p.  72. 


His  Theological  Views,  etc.y  at  Oxford.       1 2 1 

sensibly  stole  upon  me  as  I  grew  acquainted 
with  the  mystic  writers,  whose  noble  de- 
scriptions of  union  with  God,  and  internal 
religion,  made  every  thing  else  appear  mean, 
flat,  and  insipid.  But,  in  truth,  they  make 
good  works  appear  so  too."  * 

When  and  how  Wesley  was  brought 
finally  to  abandon  mysticism  does  not  ap- 
pear to  be  determinable  with  precision  ;  but 
it  would  seem  to  have  been  during,  or  soon 
after,  his  voyage  to  Georgia.  For  some 
year  or  two  previously,  his  opinions  and 
practices  must  have  been  a  singular  amal- 
gam of  High-Church  ritualism  and  of  mys- 
ticism, in  which  the  contemplative  tendency 
and  the  strenuous  and  incessant  devotion 
to  rites  or  means  and  "  good  works,"  as  the 
necessary  vehicles  and  exercise  of  holiness, 
united  in  an  asceticism  at  once  severe  and 
suave.  Rapt  abstraction,  continual  inward 
prayer,  frequent  ejaculations,  constant  at- 
tendance at  prayers,  (notwithstanding  some 
temptations  to  omit  the  duty  as  merely  an 
outward  work,)  daily  communion,  unceasing 

*  "  Southey's  Wesley,"  vol.  i,  page  94. 


122  The  Living  Wesley. 

works  of  charity,  and,  in  the  intervals,  close 
study  in  many  branches  of  learning,  En- 
glish and  foreign,  but  especially  theology 
and  ecclesiastical  history  and  literature, 
would  seem  to  have  made  up  the  life,  from 
day  to  day,  of  Wesley  and  those  original 
Methodists  who  placed  themselves  under 
his  guidance. 

"In  this  refined  way,"  he  says,  "of 
trusting  to  my  own  works  and  my  own 
righteousness,  (so  zealously  inculcated  by 
the  mystic  writers,)  I  dragged  on  heavily, 
finding  no  comfort  or  help  therein,  till 
the  time  of  my  leaving  England,"  in  1735. 
Some  change,  however,  seems  to  have  be- 
gun on  shipboard,  where,  he  says,  "  I  was 
again  active  in  outward  works."  He  also 
learned  much  from  his  Moravian  compan- 
ions on  the  voyage,  although,  he  says,  "  I 
understood  it  not  at  the  first ;  I  was  too 
learned  and  too  wise."  Nevertheless,  he 
was  more  or  less  under  the  old  influences 
all  the  time  he  remained  in  Georgia.  "All 
the  time  I  was  at  Savannah,"  he  says,  "  I 
was    thus    beating    the   air.      I    continued 


His  Theological  Views,  etc.,  at  Oxford.       123 

preaching,  and  following  after,  and  trusting 
in,  that  righteousness  whereby  no  flesh  can 
be  justified."  * 

In  the  other  account  we  have  from  his 
own  pen,  written  on  his  return  to  England, 
of  the  experiences  through  which  he  had 
passed,  he  describes  his  state  during  these 
years,  and  his  deliverance  from  it,  as 
follows : 

"  Though  I  could  never  fully  come  into 
this,"  (the  quietness  of  mysticism,)  "  nor 
contentedly  omit  what  God  enjoined,  yet, 
I  know  not  how,  I  fluctuated  between  obe- 
dience and  disobedience.  I  had  no  heart, 
no  vigor,  no  zeal  in  obeying,  continually 
doubting  whether  I  was  right  or  wrong, 
and  never  out  of  perplexities  and  entangle- 
ments. Nor  can  I  at  this  hour  give  a 
distinct  account  how  I  came  back  a  little 
toward  the  right  way ;  only  my  present 
sense  is  this — all  the  other  enemies  of 
Christianity  are   triflers ;  the   mystics  f  are 

*  "Works."  vol.  iii,  p.  72. 

t  On  November  23,  1736,  twelve  months  after  his  leaving 
England.  Wesley  wrote  a  letter  to  his  brother  Samuel,  in 
which  he  gives  an  admirable  scheme  (in  brief)  of  the  mystic 


124  The   Living  Wesley. 

the  most  dangerous;  they  stab  it  in  the 
vitals,  and  its  most  serious  professors  are 
most  likely  to  fall  by  them.'  * 

So  Wesley  wrote  in  the  beginning  of 
1738,  on  his  return  from  America.  What 
has  now  been  shown  is  the  interior  view  of 
his  character  and  experience.  I  shall  pro- 
ceed to  give  a  view  of  him  as  seen  from 
the  exterior  by  an  intimate  and  oqfted  Chris- 
tian  friend. 

But  we  must  first  recapitulate  a  few 
dates  and  facts,  as  mementos  of  an  often- 
told  history  which  it  is  not  our  intention  to 
repeat  in  this  article,  and  of  which  the  in- 
teresting and  instructive  details  are  very 
fully  given  by  Mr.  Tverman. 

doctrines,  and  asks  his  brother's  "  thoughts  "  upon  them.  It 
would  appear  that,  at  that  time,  he  had  but  lately  made  his 
escape  from  these  subtleties,  which,  though  Mr.  Tverman 
speaks  of  them  as  "mystified  balderdash,"  have  led  astray 
many  hearts  and  minds  of  the  finest  quality.  "  I  think,"  he 
says,  in  introducing  the  subject  to  his  brother,  "the  rock  on 
which  I  had  the  nearest  made  shipwreck  of  the  faith  was  the 
writings  of  the  mystics  ;  under  which  term  I  comprehend 
all,  and  only  those,  who  slight  any  of  the  means  of  grace." 
It  is  evident,  also,  from  the  style  of  his  earnest  application  to 
his  brother,  that,  even  as  he  wrote  them,  he  felt  the  power 
of  the  mystic  spell. —  Tyerman,  vol.  i,  p.  133. 
*  "  Southey's  Wesley,"  vol.  i,  p.  112. 


His  Theological  Views t  etc.,  at  Oxford.       125 

During  Wesley's  absence  from  college  in 
1727,  while  he  was  serving  his  father's  rec- 
tory of  Wroote,  his  brother  Charles  (then 
at  Christ  Church)  had  become  serious,  and 
he  and  a  few  other  serious  undergraduates 
began  to  meet  and  consort  together.  This 
company  it  was  which,  in  the  absence  of 
John,  was  first  nicknamed  variously  as  Sac- 
ramentarians,  Bible  Bigots,  Bible  Moths, 
the  Holy  or  the  Godly  Club,  and,  finally, 
Methodists.  Returning  to  Oxford  in  No- 
vember, 1729,  at  the  request  of  the  author- 
ities, to  become  a  college  tutor,  John  Wesley 
was  immediately  placed  at  the  head  of  this 
company,  being  styled  the  Father  of  the 
Holy  Club.  Whitefield,  Hervey,  Robert 
Kirkham,  and  poor  Morgan,  who  died  so 
soon,  were  among  the  earliest  members  of 
this  society*  Mr.  Gambold  also,  afterward 
a  Moravian  bishop,  a  man  both  of  deep 
piety  and  of  fine  poetic  genius,  became  a 
member  of  it.  The  best  picture  extant  of 
what  Wesley  was  at  this  time,  the  view  to 

*  For  an  exhaustive  account  of  all  the  original  Methodists, 
see  Tyerman's  "  Oxford  Methodists." 


126  The  Living  Wesley. 

which  I  have  referred  above,  is  that  delin- 
eated by  Gambold  after  Wesley  had  sailed 
to  Georgia.  It  was  given  in  a  letter  ad- 
dressed to  a  member  of  Wesley's  family. 
After  stating  how  he  became  acquainted 
with  Charles  Wesley,  how  Charles  Wesley 
took  him  to  his  brother,  the  profound  def- 
erence and  unbounded  and  tender  affection 
which  Charles  ever  showed  toward  John, 
the  part  which  Mr.  Morgan  had  in  suggest- 
ing the  society  out  of  which  Methodism 
arose,  and  that  the  two  Wesleys  and  Mor- 
gan were  the  first  members  of  that  society, 
Gambold  further  proceeds  : — 

"Mr.  John  Wesley  was  always  the  chief 
manager,  for  which  he  was  very  fit.  For  he 
had  not  only  more  learning  and  experience 
than  the  rest,  but  he  was  blessed  with  such 
activity  as  to  be  always  gaining  ground, 
and  such  steadiness  that  he  lost  none;  what 
proposals  he  made  to  any  were  sure  to 
alarm  them,  because  he  was  so  much  in  ear- 
nest ;  nor  could  they  afterward  slight  them, 
because  they  saw  him  always  the  same. 
What  supported  this  uniform  vigor  was  the 


His  Theological  Views,  etc.,  at  Oxford.        12J 

care  he  took  to  consider  well  of  every  affair 
before  he  engaged  in  it,  making  all  his  de- 
cisions in  the  fear  of  God,  without  passion, 
humor,  or  self-confidence ;  for  though  he 
had  naturally  a  very  clear  apprehension,  yet 
his  exact  prudence  depended  more  on  hon- 
esty and  singleness  of  heart.  To  this  I 
may  add  that  he  had,  I  think,  something  of 
authority  in  his  countenance.  Yet  he  never 
assumed  any  to  himself  above  his  compan- 
ions ;  any  of  them  might  speak  their  mind, 
and  their  wishes  were  as  strictly  regarded 
by  him  as  his  were  by  them.  .  .  .  They  took 
great  pains  with  the  younger  members  of 
the  University,  to  rescue  them  from  bad 
company,  and  to  encourage  them  in  a  sober, 
studious  life.  When  they  had  some  inter- 
est with  any  such,  they  would  get  them  to 
breakfast,  and  over  a  dish  of  tea  endeavor 
to  fasten  some  good  hint  upon  them  ;  they 
would  bring  them  acquainted  with  other 
well-disposed  young  men  ;  they  would  help 
them  in  those  parts  of  learning  which  they 
stuck  at ;  they  would  close  with  their  best 
sentiments,  drive    home   their    convictions, 


128  The  Living  Wesley. 

give  them  rules  of  piety  when  they  could 
receive  them,  and  watch  over  them  with 
great  tenderness." 

After  describing  their  works  of  Christian 
love  and  zeal,  especially  in  visiting  the 
prisons  and  dealing  with  the  prisoners,  in 
instructing  poor,  ignorant  children  and  re- 
lieving the  poor,  their  fasting  twice  weekly, 
and  their  weekly  communion,  Mr.  Gambold 
proceeds  : — 

"  They  seldom  took  any  notice  of  the 
accusations  brought  against  them  ;  but  if 
they  made  any  reply,  it  was  commonly  such 
a  plain  and  simple  one,  as  if  there  was 
nothing  more  in  the  case,  but  that  they  had 
just  heard  some  doctrines  of  their  Saviour, 
and  had  believed  and  done  accordingly.  .  .  . 
He  thought  prayer  to  be  more  his  business 
than  any  thing  else,  and  I  have  often  seen  him 
come  out  of  his  closet  with  a  serenity  that 
was  next  to  shining ;  it  discovered  where 
he  had  been,  and  gave  me  double  hope  of 
receiving  wise  direction  in  the  matter  about 
which  I  came  to  consult  him.  .  .  .  He  used 
many  arts  to  be  religious,  but  none  to  seem 


His  Theological  Views,  etc.,  at  Oxford.        1 29 

so  ;  with  a  soul  always  upon  the  stretch, 
and  a  most  transparent  sincerity,  he  addicted 
himself  to  every  good  word  and  work. .  .  .  He 
is  now  gone  to  Georgia  as  a  missionary.  .  .  . 
A  family  picture  of  him  his  relations  may 
be  allowed  to  keep  by  them.  And  this  is 
the  idea  of  Mr.  Wesley  which  I  cherish 
for  the  service  of  my  own  soul,  and  which 
I  take  the  liberty  likewise  to  deposit  with 
you.   ■ 

Such  was  Wesley,  the  Oxford  Methodist. 

*  Part  of  this  letter  was  quoted  in  Whitehead's  "  Life  of 
Wesley."     Dr.  Hoole  had,  and  allowed  me  to  use,  a  copy  of 
the  original  transcribed  from  the  short-hand. 
9 


130  The  Living  Wesley. 


CHAPTER  V. 

WESLEY   IN   GEORGIA HIS  AFFAIR  WITH    MISS 

HOPKEY. 

fMUST  bring  this  part  of  my  study  to 
a  close  by  a  brief  reference  to  Wesley's 
Georgian  history  of  two  years  and  four 
months  from  the  time  of  his  leaving  till 
the  time  of  his  returning  to  this  country, 
his  departure  on  his  voyage  being  from 
Gravesend,  on  October  21,  1735,  his  return 
to  Deal  on  February  1,  1738.  Of  the  voy- 
age home  and  back  I  shall  say  nothing  at 
this  time  ;  although  the  outward  voyage,  in 
the  course  of  which  Wesley  was  introduced 
for  the  first  time  into  Moravian  fellowship, 
produced,  as  all  the  world  knows,  a  critical 
effect  in  the  development  of  his  views  and 
character,  and  led  on  to  the  connection 
with  Bohler,  which  was  the  means  of  work- 
ing in  him  so  profound  and  far-reaching  a 
change  of  spirit  and  principles.     The  chief 


Wesley  i?i  Georgia — Miss  Hopkey.  131 

matter  of  general  human  interest  in  Wes- 
ley's Georgian  history  was  his  disappoint- 
ment in  love  with  Miss  Sophia  Hopkey, 
(not  Causton,)  the  niece  of  Mr.  Causton,  the 
magistrate  of  the  colony.  Into  this,  how- 
ever, I  shall  not  go  in  any  detail,  because 
the  story  is  well  known,  and  Mr.  Tyerman 
has  told  all  about  it  very  plainly,  and  more 
fully  than  it  was  ever  told  before.  There 
is  one  point,  however,  as  to  which  I  must 
say  a  few  words.  Henry  Moore,  in  his 
"  Life  of  Wesley,"  has  a  version  of  one  part 
of  this  affair,  which  he  professes  to  have 
learned  from  Wesley  himself  in  full  distinct- 
ness, and  according  to  which  Wesley  never 
actually  proposed  marriage  to  Miss  Hop- 
key.  Mr.  Tyerman  most  unceremoniously 
discredits  this  version  as  wholly  unworthy 
of  reliance,  and  as  "  painfully  ludicrous." 
I  confess  that  I  cannot  accept  this  "  short 
and  easy  method"  of  dealing  with  Moore's 
testimony  as  to  Wesley's  own  account.  I 
think  a  little  considerate  attention  given  to 
the  matter  would  have  prevented  Mr.  Tyer- 
man from  making  so  violent  and  unceremo- 


132  The  Living  Wesley. 

nious  an  attack  on  the  credit  of  either  John 
Wesley  or  Henry  Moore,  and  have  shown 
him  that  there  is  really  no  contradiction 
between  the  sentences  which  he  quotes 
from  Wesley's  private  Diary  and  the  state- 
ment of  Henry  Moore.  I  should  weave 
the  two  accounts  into  one  consistent  state- 
ment in  some  such  way  as  follows : — 

The  young  chaplain  and  "  ordinary  "  of 
the  province  of  Georgia — a  clergyman  and 
a  gentleman,  and  withal  a  man  of  handsome 
personal  appearance,  notwithstanding  his 
smallness  of  stature — comes  to  Savannah. 
Who  so  likely  as  he  to  attract  the  atten- 
tion of  the  magistrate's  niece,  resident  in 
the  magistrate's  family?  Was  he  not,  next 
to  Governor  Oglethorpe,  the  best  gentle- 
man in  the  colony,  and  in  influence,  after 
the  governor,  only  second  to  her  uncle,  the 
magistrate  ?  From  the  first,  she  makes 
him  her  mark.  He  has  a  long  and  danger- 
ous illness  ;  she  waits  upon  him  continually, 
night  and  day.  He  has  special  and  dainty 
taste  in  dress;  the  Horatian  "simplex  mnn- 
ditiis"  expresses  his  standard  of  propriety 


Wesley  in  Georgia — Miss  Hopkey.  133 

and  grace,  regarding  the  matter  either  as  a 
gentleman  or  a  Christian ;  simplicity  be- 
comes accordingly  her  law,  and  she  appears 
in  plain,  but  graceful,  white  before  him  con- 
tinually. He  is  a  devotee,  and  she  becomes 
devout.  She  wins  the  minister's  heart  by 
her  regular  attendance  at  his  early  morning 
service,  and  by  taking  to  light  suppers  and 
early  hours  at  night  under  his  advice.  She 
becomes  his  penitent,  and  repairs  to  him 
when  proposing  to  take  the  Communion. 
Quid  multa  ?  We  know  how  unsuspicious 
and  how  susceptible  to  feminine  attraction 
and  charm  Wesley  was  ;  here  was  all  that 
he  could  desire,  the  very  "  handmaiden  of 
the  Lord."  Wesley  is  deeply  in  love. 
Meantime,  others  have  clearer  eyes  than  the 
fascinated  chaplain ;  something  is  known 
of  Miss  Hopkey's  inner  woman  ;  she  has, 
in  effect,  courted  the  minister,  and  he  is 
about  to  fall  under  the  arts  of  an  attract- 
ive, but  unsuitable,  woman.  Delamotte,  his 
brother  collegian  and  brother  Methodist, 
his  companion  and  friend,  gives  a  word  of 
warning  to  Wesley.      Delamotte   also   lays 


134  The   Living  Wesley. 

the  matter  before  the  Moravian  e.ders,  a 
venerable  body  in  the  eyes  of  the  teachable 
and  single-minded  chaplain.  These  express 
their  judgment  that  his  marriage  with  this 
lady  would  be  against  the  will  of  God. 
Wesley,  overawed,  says,  "  The  will  of  the 
Lord  be  done,"  and  goes  away  convinced, 
for  the  time  at  least,  that  it  would  be  wrong 
in  him  to  prosecute  this  connection  any 
further.  In  all  this  I  can  see  nothing  but 
what  is  perfectly  natural  under  the  circum- 
stances ;  especially  considering  how  Wes- 
ley was  accustomed,  at  that  time  and  for 
years  afterward,  to  defer  to  what  he  regard- 
ed as  the  determinations  of  Providence, 
sometimes  given  in  the  way  of  impressions, 
and  sometimes  of  the  lot,  and  still  more  to 
the  combined  judgment  and  conclusion  of 
wise  and  good  men.  He  had  been  accus- 
tomed to  act  in  this  spirit  at  Oxford,  and 
to  instruct  others  to  do  the  like. 

I  conceive  that  what  followed  was  prob- 
ably something  like  this.  Wesley  became 
more  constrained  in  his  manner,  and  inter- 
mitted his  attentions.     Miss  Hopkey  hears 


Wesley  in  Georgia — Miss  Hopkcy.  135 

some  rumor  of  consultations  with  Mora- 
vians touching  her  affair.  She  discovers, 
at  the  same  time,  that  Wesley's  ritualistic  re- 
quirements are  somewhat  too  severe  for  her 
taste  and  powers.  Another  admirer  is  in 
the  field,  and  she  at  once  discards  her  cler- 
ical lover.  Wesley,  notwithstanding  what 
had  occurred,  had  never  lost  his  own  love 
for  the  lady,  and  is  grieved  accordingly. 
Nevertheless,  he  had  been  thinking  that  it 
was  his  duty  to  give  up  the  connection, 
although  he  had  not  been  able  to  gather 
courage  to  let  her  understand  his  feeling ; 
and  so  the  affair  ends.  All  this  surely  is 
quite  consistent  with  Henry  Moore's  state- 
ment, that  there  had  never  been  any  definite 
proposal  on  Wesley's  part.  If  there  had 
been,  it  is  certain  that  it  would  have  been 
made  in  the  first  instance  to  Mr.  Causton, 
the  young  lady's  guardian.  Clergymen  of 
Wesley's  character  and  position  did  not,  in 
those  days,  slip  out  proposals  of  marriage 
informally  and  privately  to  the  ward  or 
daughter  in  the  first  instance.  They  ad- 
dressed   themselves,    and    were    bound    to 


136  The   Living  Wesley. 

address  themselves,  in  the  first  instance, 
and  with  all  formality,  to  the  parent  or 
guardian.  The  undoubted  fact  is,  that  no 
proposal  of  marriage  to  Miss  Hopkey  was 
ever  addressed  by  Wesley  to  her  uncle,  and 
that  no  charge  of  dishonorable  conduct  or 
of  breach  of  engagement  was  ever  preferred 
against  Wesley  either  by  Mrs.  Williamson 
or  by  Mr.  Causton :  these  considerations 
settle  the  question  for  us.  Mr.  Tyerman 
himself  informs  us,  that  before  the  grand 
jury  Mrs.  Williamson  (Miss  Hopkey)  "was 
called,  but  acknowledged,  in  the  course  of 
her  examination,  that  she  had  no  objection 
to  Wesley's  behavior  previous  to  her  mar- 
riage. Mr.  and  Mrs.  Causton  were  also  ex- 
amined ;  when  the  former  confessed  that,  if 
Mr.  Wesley  had  asked  his  consent  to  marry 
his  niece,  he  would  not  have  refused  it."  * 

It  is  plain  enough  that  Wesley's  great 
offense  was,  that  he  did  not  propose.  His 
hesitation  lost  him  Miss  Hopkey — a  loss 
which,  no  doubt,  was  a  real  gain  and  bless- 
ing.    Mr.  Moore's  account  is  not  "  painfully 

*  Tyerman,  vol.  i,  p.  156. 


Wesley  in  Georgia — Miss  Hop  key.  137 

ludicrous,"  but  is  well  sustained  by  all  the 
evidence.  It  is  sustained,  indeed,  by  the 
very  passages  which  Mr.  Tyerman  quotes 
from  the  unpublished  journal.  Here  is 
one  : — 

"February  ^th,  1737. — One  of  the  most 
remarkable  dispensations  of  Providence  to- 
ward me  began  to  show  itself  this  day.  For 
many  days  after,  I  could  not  at  all  judge 
which  way  the  scale  would  turn  ;  nor  was  it 
fully  determined  till  March  4,  on  which  day 
God  commanded  me  to  pull  out  my  right 
eye ;  and,  by  his  grace,  I  determined  to 
do  so,  but,  being  slack  in  the  execution,  on 
Saturday,  March  12,  God  being  very  mer- 
ciful to  me,  my  friend  performed  what  I 
could  not." 

The  meaning  of  this  is  not  hard  to  deci- 
pher. Delamotte  had  spoken  to  Wesley, 
as  Moore  relates,  and  Wesley  felt  bound 
to  take  advice.  He  did  take  advice  with 
David  Nitzchmann,  as  Moore  also  relates, 
and  his  answer  was  dubious,  suggesting 
grave  caution  and  deliberation.  After  a 
month   thus  passed  in  painful  irresolution, 


138  The  Living  Wesley. 

on  the  4th  of  March,  Nitzchmann  commu- 
nicates to  Wesley  the  judgment  of  his  fel- 
low-elders— I  have  no  doubt  a  most  sound 
judgment — that  he  ought  not  to  marry. 
Wesley  receives  this  as  from  the  Lord,  and 
determines  to  carry  it  out,  but  is  "  slack  in 
the  execution."  On  the  8th,  the  matter  be- 
ing blown  abroad  in  gossiping  Savannah, 
Miss  Hopkey  takes  her  revenge  by  en- 
gaging herself  to  an  altogether  unworthy 
person  of  the  name  of  Williamson.  On  the 
7th,  as  we  learn  from  the  Diary,  Wesley  had 
walked  with  Causton  "  to  his  country  lot," 
and  had  greatly  admired  the  place,  but  had 
made  no  overture  of  marriage.  Wesley's 
entry  in  regard  to  the  marriage  is  as 
follows  : — 

"  March  8,  Miss  Sophy  engaged  herself  to 
Mr.  Williamson,  a  person  not  remarkable 
for  handsomeness,  neither  for  greatness, 
neither  for  wit,  or  knowledge,  or  sense,  and 
least  of  all  for  religion ;  and  on  Saturday, 
March  12,  they  were  married  at  Parrys- 
bury — this  being  the  day  which  completed 
the    year  from    my  first    speaking    to    her. 


Wesley  iti  Georgia — Miss  Hopkey.  139 

What  Thou  doest,  0  God,  I  know  not  now, 
but  I  shall  know  hereafter." 

That  he  had  tenderly  loved  Miss  Hopkey 
is  certain  ;  equally  evident  it  is  that  he  must 
have  been  a  somewhat  trying,  and  not  eas- 
ily comprehensible,  suitor,  especially  to  a 
vain  young  lady  ;  and  the  hasty  marriage 
shows  how  bitterly  she  resented  his  inde- 
cision, and  the  slight  which  she  conceived 
herself  to  have  suffered.  Forty-nine  years 
after,  as  Mr.  Tyerman  reminds  us,  he  wrote, 
in  reference  to  this  event :  "  I  remember 
when  I  read  these  words  in  the  church  at  Sa- 
vannah :  '  Son  of  man,  behold,  I  take  away 
from  thee  the  desire  of  thine  eyes  with  a 
stroke,'  I  was  pierced  through  as  with  a 
sword,  and  could  not  utter  a  word  more. 
But  our  comfort  is  that  He  that  made  the 
heart  can  heal  the  heart." 

Such  was  the  unprosperous  issue  of  Wes- 
ley's third  love  affair.  He  was  not,  it  must 
be  confessed,  fortunate  in  these  affairs  ;  but 
they  illustrate  very  strongly  the  real  nature 
of  the  man,  equally  on  his  weak  and  on  his 
fine  human  side.     On  the  whole,  we  cannot 


140  The  Living  Wesley. 

but  love  our  Wesley  the  better  for  these 
revelations.  At  the  same  time,  it  is  a  mat- 
ter of  regret  that  Mr.  Tyerman  has  so  in- 
adequately rendered  them,  as  he  has,  in  my 
judgment,  inadequately,  inapprehensively, 
and  therefore  with  entire  (though  alto- 
gether unconscious)  unfairness,  represented, 
throughout  his  volumes,  Wesley's  relations 
of  affection  and  confidence  with  women. 

This  affair,  as  many  of  my  readers  know, 
and  all  may  fully  know  by  consulting  Mr. 
Tyerman's  interesting  pages,  was  the  begin- 
ning of  troubles  to  Wesley.  The  worldly 
and  wicked  members  of  the  colony — and,  in 
such  a  colony  as  Georgia  was,  these  could 
not  but  be  the  majority — had  now  the  mag- 
istrate and  his  family  on  their  side.  A  suit 
at  law  was  brought  against  him,  which,  how- 
ever, completely  broke  down,  and  Wesley 
saw  that  his  only  course  was  to  leave  the 
colony — "  a  sadder  and  a  wiser  man  "  than 
he  entered  it. 


Wesley's  Religious  Opinions,  etc.}  in  Georgia.    141 


CHAPTER  VI. 

WESLEY'S    RELIGIOUS    OPINIONS   AND    CHARAC- 
TER IN   GEORGIA. 


ROM  the  public  indictment  against 
Js&k  Wesley  in  the  Savannah  court,  and 
his  own  testimony  or  comments  in  his  Diary, 
we  know  what  sort  of  a  Churchman  he  was 
in  Georgia.  The  resemblance  of  his  prac- 
tices to  those  of  modern  High  Anglicans 
is,  in  most  points,  exceedingly  striking. 
He  had  early,  and  also  forenoon,  service 
every  day;  he  divided  the  morning  service, 
taking  the  Litany  as  a  separate  service ;  he 
inculcated  fasting,  (real,  hard  fasting,  his 
was,)  and  confession,  and  weekly  commun- 
ion ;  he  refused  the  Lord's  Supper  to  all  who 
had  not  been  episcopally  baptized  ;  he  in- 
sisted on  baptism  by  immersion  ;  he  rebap- 
tized  the  children  of  Dissenters  ;  and  he 
refused  to  bury  all  who  had  not  received 
Episcopalian  baptism.     One  only  thing  was 


142  The  Living  Wesley. 

wanting  to  make  the  parallel  with  our  mod- 
erns complete  :  there  is  no  evidence  that 
he  believed  in  the  conversion  of  the  ele- 
ments by  consecration,  or  in  their  doctrine 
of  the  "real  presence."* 

But,  at  the  same  time  that  he  was  in 
some  respects  an  intolerant  High-Church 
ritualist,  he  was  inwardly  melting,  and  the 
light  of  spiritual  liberty  was  dawning  into 
his  soul.  He  attended  the  Presbyterian 
service  at  Darien,  heard  Mr.  M'Leod,  the 
minister,  to  his  great  astonishment,  offer  an 
extemporary  prayer  and  preach  a  written 
sermon,  on  which  fact  he  fails  not  to  remark 
in  his  Diary,  but  was  much  struck  by  the 
Christian    devoutness    and   the    exemplary 

*  It  is  well  known  that  Wesley  refused  the  Lord's  Supper  to 
one  of  the  most  exemplary  Christians  in  the  colony,  Belzius,  the 
pastor  of  the  Saltzburghers,  because  he  had  not  been,  as  he 
insisted,  canonically  baptized.  His  entry  in  his  journal  in 
reference  to  this  matter,  written  many  years  later,  will  not 
be  forgotten,  which  ends  with  the  words,  "Can  High-Church 
bigotry  go  further  than  this  ?  And  how  well  have  I  since  been 
beaten  with  mine  own  staff!  "  In  regard  to  this  matter  there 
is  the  following  entry  in  Wesley's  unpublished  journal,  under 
date  Sunday,  July  17,  1737  :  "  I  had  occasion  to  make  a  very 
unusual  trial  of  the  temper  of  Mr.  Belzius,  pastor  of  the 
Saltzburghers,  in  which  he  behaved  with  such  lowliness  and 
meekness  as  became  a  disciple  of  Jesus  Christ." 


Wesley's  Religions  Opinions,  etc.,  in  Georgia.    143 

Christian  behavior  of  the  people  of  his 
charge  ;  he  was  continually  learning  from 
the  Moravians,  with  all  meekness  ;  he  gath- 
ered a  meeting  of  the  clergy  of  the  prov- 
ince, at  which,  he  says  in  his  Diary,  "  there 
was  such  a  conversation,  for  several  hours, 
on  "  Christ  our  Righteousness  and  Exam- 
ple," with  such  seriousness  and  closeness  as 
I  never  heard  in  England  in  all  the  visita- 
tions I  have  been  present  at;"  and  he  thus 
expresses  to  a  friend  his  views  respecting 
the  innermost  nature  of  religion  : — 

"  I  entirely  agree  with  you  that  religion 
is  love,  and  peace,  and  joy  in  the  Holy 
Ghost ;  that,  as  it  is  the  happiest,  so  it  is 
the  cheerfulest  thing  in  the  world  ;  that  it  is 
utterly  inconsistent  with  moroseness,  sour- 
ness, severity,  and  indeed  with  whatever  is 
not  according  to  the  softness,  sweetness,  and 
gentleness  of  Christ  Jesus.  I  believe  it  is 
equally  contrary  to  all  preciseness,  stiffness, 
affectation,  and  unnecessary  singularity.  I 
allow,  too,  that  prudence,  as  well  as  zeal,  is 
of  the  utmost  importance  in  the  Christian 
life.     But   I    do   not  yet    see   any  possible 


144  The  Living  Wesley. 

case  wherein  trifling  conversation  can  be 
an  instance  of  it.  In  the  following  Script- 
ures I  take  all  such  to  be  flatly  forbidden  : 
Matt,  xii,  36;  Eph.  v,  4,  and  iv,  29  ;  Col.  iv,  6. 

"  That  I  shall  be  laughed  at  for  this  I 
know;  so  was  my  Master.  I  am  not  for  a 
stern,  austere  manner  of  conversing — no : 
let  all  the  cheerfulness  of  faith  be  there, 
all  the  joyfulness  of  hope,  all  the  amiable 
sweetness,  the  winning  easiness  of  love. 
If  we  must  have  art,  " Hcec  mihi  erunt 
artes. 

So  far  distant  from  real  Christianity  does 
Wesley,  the  Georgian  missionary,  appear  to 
have  been,  if  we  look  only  at  his  bigotry, 
his  ritualism,  his  wearisome  and  punctilious 
externalism  ;  so  near,  notwithstanding,  does 
he  come  in  his  inner  desires  and  in  his 
views  respecting  the  nature  of  religious  ex- 
perience. A  similar  combination,  we  can- 
not doubt,  exists  to-day  in  the  case  of  not  a 
few  who  seem  not  untruly  to  be  infatuated 
sticklers  for  a  servile  and  benighted  High- 
Anglicanism. 

*  Tyerman,  vol.  i,  p.  138. 


Wesley's  Religions  Opinions,  etc.,  in  Georgia.    145 

I  have  thus  endeavored,  beating  ground 
seldom  trodden,  and  known  hitherto  to  very 
few,  to  exhibit  the  living  and  visible  hu- 
manity of  Wesley,  the  Collegian  and  the 
Oxford  Anglican,  before  he  entered  into 
the  liberty  of  the  children  of  God.  In  the 
Third  part  of  this  study  I  shall  endeavor 
to  illustrate  the  stages  and  the  true  char- 
acter of  his  evangelical  conversion,  and  his 
matured  character  after  his  conversion,  espe- 
cially on  the  side  of  his  intellect,  so  skep- 
tical, and  yet  seemingly  so  credulous  ;  his 
wonderful  power  as  a  preacher;  and  his 
temper  and  principles  as  a  living  companion 
and  administrator.  Wesley's  intellect,  and 
his   character  as  a  preacher,  appear  to  me, 

as  yet,  to  have  been  little  understood. 
10 


PART    III. 

JOHN  WESLEY  AFTEE  HIS  CONVERSION  AID  IX  THE 
MATURITY  OF  HIS  POWERS. 


PART    III. 

JOHN  WESLEY  AFTER  HIS  CONVERSION  AND  IN 
THE  MATURITY  OF  HIS  POWERS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

WESLEY'S   RITUALISM  AND    MYSTICISM   BEFORE 
HIS  EVANGELICAL  CONVERSION. 

XT  will  be  necessary,  in  opening  what 
@=>  I  desire  now  to  say  respecting  Wesley 
in  his  mature  and  in  his  later  life,  that  I 
should  recapitulate  some  of  the  information 
contained  in  the  former  part  of  this  study. 
We  left  Wesley  still  in  Georgia,  but  on  the 
point  of  returning  to  England.  The  date 
was  1737-8. 

Wesley  had  gone  to  Oxford  in  1720,  be- 
ing seventeen  years  of  age.  He  took  his 
bachelors  degree  in  1724.  He  was  ordained 
deacon  in  1725,  and  elected  Fellow  of  Lin- 
coln College  six  months  later,  in  March, 
1726.      He  had  always  been  a  moral   youth, 


150  The  Living  Wesley. 

with  religious  habits  and  predilections  ;  but 
in  1725  he  was  deeply  awakened  to  a  sense 
of  his  want  of  real  holiness,  and  began 
thenceforth  to  seek  after  absolute  consecra- 
tion to  God,  as  the  great  aim  of  his  life. 
The  main  outline  of  his  characteristic  teach- 
ing in  future  life  as  to  Christian  perfection 
may  be  traced  in  the  views  which  he  at  this 
time  embraced,  and  which  he  seems  to  have 
learned  chiefly  from  Thomas  k  Kempis  and 
Jeremy  Taylor.  In  the  same  year,  also,  he 
settled  his  views  in  opposition  to  the  Cal- 
vinistic  doctrines  of  predestination.  About 
the  same  time,  revolting  at  this  point  from 
Jeremy  Taylor,  he  concluded  that  it  must 
be  the  privilege  and  blessing  of  a  Christian 
to  know  his  acceptance  with  God. 

In  1727,  during  Wesley's  absence  from 
Oxford  at  Wroote,  where  he  was  serving  his 
fathers  rectory,  his  brother  Charles  became 
serious,  and  the  original  company  of  "  Meth- 
odists," so  designated  in  mockery  or  in 
pleasantry,  was  formed ;  Charles  and  a  few 
like-minded  friends  being  the  members  of 
the    company.     In    1730,    shortly  after    his 


Wesley's  Ritualism  and  Mysticism.         151 

return  to  residence  at  Oxford,  John  Wesley 
was  placed  at  the  head  of  this  company, 
being  styled  the  Father  of  the  Holy  Club. 
Wesley,  as  I  have  just  stated,  left  Oxford 
in  1727,  and  went  for  a  time  to  reside  in 
Lincolnshire.  Not  long  before  his  leaving 
he  had  visited  the  family  of  the  Kirkhams, 
at  Stanton,  in  Gloucestershire ;  and  there 
appears,  as  we  have  seen,  to  have  been  at 
that  time  a  mutual  attachment  between 
himself  and  Miss  Betty  Kirkham.  Of  this, 
however,  we  lose  the  traces  for  several 
years  afterward.  During  those  years,  it  is 
to  be  observed,  Wesley  was  very  far  away 
from  Gloucestershire ;  they  were  the  years 
during  which  he  had  exchanged  his  univer- 
sity life  for  parochial  residence  and  service 
in  Lincolnshire.  Possibly  there  may  have 
been  some  reason  connected  with  Stanton 
which  helped  in  part  to  keep  him  so  long 
away  from  Oxford,  though  the  reason  was 
certainly  not  that  he  had  become  indifferent 
to  the  merits  of  his  friend  Kirkham's  sister. 
However,  to  Oxford  he  returned,  as  we 
have  noted,  at  the  end  of  1729,  and  became 


152  The  Living  Wesley. 

the  chief  of  the  Methodist  band.  In  the 
summer  of  that  same  year  he  renewed  his 
personal  intercourse  with  the  daughter  of 
the  Stanton  parsonage,  although  without 
any  hope  of  marriage  being  possible ;  in- 
deed, it  seems  not  unlikely  that  about  this 
time  she  married  and  became  Mrs.  Wilson. 
Through  his  connection  with  her  family  he 
was  about  the  same  time  introduced  to 
Mrs.  Pendarves,  afterward  Mrs.  Delany, 
with  whom,  during  several  years  following, 
he  kept  up  the  remarkable  and  now  well- 
known  correspondence  from  which  I  have 
given  some  extracts.  His  last  and  parting 
letter  to  her  was  dated  1 734.  By  that  time 
he  had  learned  that  his  way  and  hers 
through  life  must  be  separate  and  diverg- 
ent. Three  years  before  he  was  deeply 
engaged  to  her  in  admiration  and  affection, 
and  would  most  gladly  have  married  her  if 
he  had  been  able.  At  that  time  she  would 
have  been  a  compensation  to  him  for  even 
the  loss  of  his  former  hopes  as  to  Miss 
Kirkham. 

It  was  precisely  during  the  interval  which 


Wesley's  Ritualism  and  Mystic  ism.  153 

covers  the  correspondence  with  Mrs.  Pen- 
darves  that  Wesley's  High-church  asceticism 
developed  itself  at  Oxford.  He  set  himself 
conscientiously  to  be  an  Anglican  Church- 
man, according  to  the  prescriptions  of  the 
Rubric;  and  to  be  a  devout  and  holy  Chris- 
tian, according  to  early  ecclesiastical  exam- 
ples and  traditions.  He  became,  accord- 
ingly, an  ascetic  ritualist  of  the  strictest 
and  most  advanced  class.  At  this  time,  to 
use  his  own  words  of  himself,  he  "  made  an- 
tiquity a  co-ordinate  rule  with  Scripture."* 
In  1735  he  went  to  Georgia,  and  there, 
while  inwardly  the  need  and  the  attainabil- 
ity of  a  real  consciousness  and  power  of 
Divine  love  and  holiness,  as  contradistin- 
guished from  any  external  services  or  ob- 
servances, became  with  him  a  matter  of 
deepening  and  almost  passionate  convic- 
tion, outwardly  his  rule  of  life  and  service 
seemed  to  become   more  and  more  forbid- 

*Mr.  Tyerman,  in  his  "Oxford  Methodists,"  has  shown 
that  it  was  in  1733  that  Wesley,  partly  through  the  influence 
of  his  friend  and  fellow-Methodist,  Clayton,  left  the  guidance 
of  the  Bible  to  follow  that  of  tradition,  or  such  pretended 
tradition  as  the  Apostolical  Constitutions. 


154  The  Living  Wesley. 

ding  and  unevangelical  in  its  legal  servility, 
its  rubrical  punctiliousness,  and  its  ascetic 
severity.  He  was  all  that  a  High  Anglo- 
Catholic  of  the  present  day  is  understood 
to  be,  except  that  he  seems  not  to  have 
believed  in  the  "  conversion  of  the  ele- 
ments "  in  the  eucharist. 

Nevertheless,  with  all  his  punctilious  rit- 
ualism, there  was  curiously  intermixed,  dur- 
ing nearly  the  whole  of  these  seven  years, 
(1730 — 1737-8,)  a  strong  tincture  of  mys- 
tical tendency  and  influence.  This  element 
represented  the  reaction,  in  such  a  true  and 
earnest  soul  as  Wesley's,  of  the  inward 
against  the  merely  outward.  Through  all 
his  life,  indeed,  Wesley  was  resolute  to 
maintain  the  union  of  outward  godliness 
and  religious  observance  with  inward  and 
spiritual  contemplation  and  affection.  But 
during  the  period  of  which  we  are  now 
speaking  he  had  not  found,  in  the  "  right- 
eousness of  faith,"  the  true  nexus  and  har- 
mony between  these  antithetic  necessities. 
Hence,  at  this  period,  the  intermixture  of 
ritualism    and    mysticism,    the    oscillations 


Wesley's  Ritualism  and  Mysticism.         155 

from  one  to  the  other,  of  which  we  spoke 
in  Part  Second.  Never  ceasing  to  be 
outwardly  the  strict  and  ascetic  High- 
churchman,  Wesley,  in  his  inward  sympa- 
thies and  longings,  found  himself  strongly 
attracted  by  the  union  of  contemplation 
and  passion  in  the  writings  of  the  best  class 
of  devotional  Mystics,  and  was  himself  often 
a  mystic  at  heart.  Indeed,  although  servile 
ritualism  and  mysticism  are  antagonistic 
to  each  other,  there  is  a  deep  congeniality, 
as  all  religious  history  has  shown,  between 
asceticism  and  mysticism,  and,  accordingly, 
on  his  ascetic  side,  Wesley  found  himself 
verging  naturally  toward  the  school  from 
which,  as  a  punctilious  legalist,  he  was  re- 
pelled. Besides  which  Wesley  could  not, 
even  for  a  time,  find  rest  in  legalism  :  ear- 
nest and  sincere  spirits  never  can.  Where- 
as mysticism  was  a  doctrine  of  rest ;  made 
fair  offers  to  him  of  "  quietness  and  assur- 
ance forever." 

It  was  about  1728  or  1729  that  Wesley 
was  deeply  impressed  by  reading  Law's 
''Christian  Perfection"  and  "Serious  Call." 


156  The  Living  Wesley. 

The  fruit  of  these  powerful  books  was  seen 
in  his  deepened  earnestness  and  "  Meth- 
odist "  singularity  of  religious  strictness  and 
devotion  on  his  return  to  Oxford  ;  that  is, 
from  the  beginning  of  the  year  1730.  In 
1732  he  paid  a  personal  visit  to  Law,  at 
Putney ;  and  from  that  period  seemed  to 
have  begun  to  read  the  Mystics,  chiefly,  it 
would  seem,  at  first,  the  Germans  who  pre- 
ceded and  in  part  prepared  the  way  for  the 
Reformation,  such  as  Tauler,  and  the  au- 
thor of  the  "  Theologia  Germanica;"  but 
afterward,  also,  such  French  writers  as 
Madame  de  Bourignon.  Just  as  he  was 
leaving  England  for  Georgia,  Law  was 
going  astray,  wide  and  deep,  by  plunging 
into  the  unfathomable  confusions  of  Beh- 
menism.  Into  these  Wesley  never  followed 
him  ;  but,  as  I  have  already  shown,  appears 
to  have  distinctly  and  intelligently  extri- 
cated himself  from  the  meshes  of  mysticism 
toward  the  end  of  the  year  1736,  during  his 
sojourn  in  Georgia.  His  criticism  on  the 
principles  of  mysticism,  given  in  a  letter  to 
his    brother    Samuel,  from  Georgia,  under 


Wesley's  Ritualism  and  Mysticism.  157 

date  November  23,  1736,  and  already  re- 
ferred to  in  a  note,  is  worth  quoting  here, 
both  for  its  own  intrinsic  value  and  as  a 
specimen  of  his  philosophical  and  critical 
capacity  at  this  period  of  his  life. 

"  I  think,"  he  says,  "  the  rock  on  which  I 
had  the  nearest  made  shipwreck  of  the  faith 
was  the  writings  of  the  Mystics ;  under 
which  term  I  comprehend  all,  and  only 
those,  who  slight  any  of  the  means  of  grace. 
I  have  drawn  up  a  short  scheme  of  their 
doctrines,  and  beg  your  thoughts  upon  it 
as  soon  as  you  can  conveniently.  Give  me 
them  as  particularly,  fully,  and  strongly,  as 
your  time  will  permit.  They  may  be  of 
consequence,  not  only  to  all  this  province, 
but  to  nations  of  Christians  yet  unborn. 

" '  All  means  are  not  necessary  for  all 
men  ;  therefore  each  person  must  use  such 
means,  and  such  only,  as  he  finds  necessary 
for  him.  When  the  end  is  attained,  the 
means  cease." 

"'Men  utterly  divested  of  free-will,  of 
self-love,  and  of  self-activity,  are  entered 
into  the  passive  state,  and  enjoy  such  a  con- 


158  The  Living  Wesley. 

templation  as  is  not  only  above  faith  but 
above  sight — such  as  is  entirely  free  from 
images,  thoughts,  and  discourse,  and  never 
interrupted  by  sins  of  infirmity  or  volun- 
tary distractions.'  They  have  absolutely 
renounced  their  reason  and  understanding ; 
else  they  could  not  be  guided  by  a  Divine 
light.  They  seek  no  clear  or  particular 
knowledge  of  any  thing ;  but  only  an  ob- 
scure, general  knowledge,  which  is  far 
better.' 

"Having  thus  attained  the  end,  the 
means  must  cease.  Hope  is  swallowed  up 
in  love ;  sight,  or  something  more  than 
sight,  takes  the  place  of  faith.'  All  particu- 
lar virtues  they  possess  in  the  essence,  and, 
therefore,  need  not  the  distinct  exercise  of 
them.  They  work,  likewise,  all  good  works 
essentially,  not  accidentally;  and  use  all 
outward  means  only  as  they  are  moved 
thereto.' 

"  Public  prayer,  or  any  forms,  they  need 
not,  for  they  pray  without  ceasing.  Sensi- 
ble devotion  in  any  prayer  they  despise, 
it  being  a  great  hinderance   to  perfection. 


Wesley  }s  Ritualism  and  Mysticism.         159 

The  Scripture  they  need  not  read,  for  it  is 
only  His  letter,  with  whom  they  converse 
face  to  face."  * 

The  one  really  plausible  position  of  all 
that  are  here  laid  down  is  that  set  forth  in 
the  first  paragraph  of  the  summary.  How 
much  of  truth  there  is  in  it  it  is  not  my 
business  to  inquire  at  this  moment.  But  I 
may  observe  that  Wesley's  special  weak- 
ness at  this  time  as  a  ritualist  was  in  pre- 
cise antithesis  to  this  position.  He  taught 
the  pernicious  error  which  is  in  the  oppo- 
site extreme  to  the  no  less  pernicious  mys- 
tical half-truth.  His  one  prescription  for  the 
attainment  of  holiness  and  happiness  was 
the  use  of  "the  means  of  grace" — of  the 
instituted  means.  He  taught  that  the  more 
means  there  are,  and  are  made  use  of,  the 
more  grace  must  needs  come  to  the  sincere 
user  of  them.  His  doctrine  was  a  servile 
legalism,  a  plodding  ritualism,  less  absurd, 
perhaps,  and  less  open  to  mischievous  abuse, 
than  the  extremer  developments  of  the 
mysticism  summarized   in   the   passage  we 

[*  "Tyerman's  Wesley,"  vol.  i,  pp.  133,  134.] 


160  The  Living  Wesley. 

have  quoted,  but  not  less  opposed  to  Chris- 
tian truth,  and  in  special  contradiction  to 
the  liberty  wherewith  Christ  has  made  his 
people  free.  One  secret  of  the  strength 
and  attraction  of  the  mystical  doctrines  for 
him — that  which  drew  him  to  them,  even 
while  he  revolted  against  them — consisted, 
doubtless,  in  the  fact  that  the  element  of 
truth  which  lay  at  the  bottom  of  all  their 
Antinomian  paradoxes  and  inexplicable  sub- 
tleties, was,  if  it  could  only  have  been  dis- 
involved  from  the  fallacies  in  which  it  was 
embedded,  precisely  the  principle  that  was 
needed  to  correct  his  own  servile  doc- 
trine of  "means" — his  ritualistic  legalism. 
To  this  must  be  added,  that  the  mystical 
doctrines,  under  the  hands  of  some  of  their 
teachers,  become  a  very  cunning  web  of 
verbal  deductions;  a  fabric  of  fallacies  very 
deftly  put  together,  and  exceedingly  likely 
to  impose  upon  a  verbal  logician.  Now, 
Wesley  was  a  most  dexterous  master  of 
the  logical  art  and  method.  But  if  his  mas- 
tery of  the  logician's  craft  often  stood  him 
in    good    stead  when    conducting  an  argu- 


Wesley's  Ritualism  and  Mysticism.         161 

ment,  it  also  was  at  times  a  snare  to  him. 
If  he  often  easily  and  happily  disentangled 
verbal  subtleties,  he  was  sometimes  entan- 
gled in  them.  The  school  in  which  he  was 
trained  was  a  school  of  verbal  dialectics  and 
of  scholastic  distinctions.  Hence,  though  he 
was  furnished  with  the  skill  and  possessed 
the  power  finally  to  penetrate  and  refute 
the  fallacies  of  the  Mystics,  he  was  for  a 
time  bewildered  in  their  plausible  mazes. 

The  passage  I  have  quoted  shows,  at 
any  rate,  that  Wesley  had,  from  the  begin- 
ning, the  taste  and  tendencies  of  the  philo- 
sophic theologian ;  and,  moreover,  that  he 
had  a  fine  philosophic  capacity.  The  philo- 
sophic tincture  and  bias  of  thought  remained 
with  Wesley  through  life,  and  was  shown  in 
many  of  his  sermons,  not  only  in  such  of  his 
most  finished  discourses,  published  in  his 
ripe  maturity  of  thought,  as  that  on  "  The 
Original  of  the  Law,"  but  in  many  of  those 
which,  in  the  later  years  of  his  long  life,  he 
wrote  for  the  "Arminian  Magazine."  His 
original  tendency,  in  fact,  was  to  be  a  philo- 
sophical rather  than  an  evangelical,  or  even 


1 62  The  Living  Wesley. 

a  biblical,  theologian.  His  Moravian  guides, 
especially  Bohler,  drove  him  to  the  New 
Testament.  Bohler  had  strong  reason  when 
he  said  to  him,  "  Mi  f rater,  mi  f rater,  ista 
philosophia  tua  excoquenda  est."  It  has  often 
been  said  that  Wesley  was  not  a  metaphysi- 
cian ;  and  there  is  truth  in  the  saying,  al- 
though it  is  by  no  means  so  absolutely  true 
as  it  is  commonly  assumed  to  be.  But  then 
there  can  hardly  be  said  to  have  been  any 
metaphysical  science  in  his  earlier  days, 
least  of  all  at  Oxford.  It  might  not  be  un- 
truly said  that  even  Cudworth  was  no  met- 
aphysician. But  if  Wesley  was  not  a  met- 
aphysician, he  was  a  philosophical  student 
in  the  whole  bias  of  his  intellect,  addicted, 
no  doubt,  like  all  the  students  of  his  age, 
and  in  the  spirit  of  all  scholastic  traditions, 
to  synthesis  and  deduction  rather  than  to 
analysis  and  induction ;  but  nevertheless 
open  to  correction  as  respects  this  tendency. 
The  characteristic  parts  of  Wesley's  theol- 
ogy were  based  on  experience  and  con- 
sciousness. His  Arminianism  was  founded 
on  the  moral  intuitions  of  humanity,  in  oppo- 


Wesley's  Ritualism  and  Mysticism.         163 

sition  to  the  mere  deductive  logic  of  Calvin- 
ism. His  doctrines  of  assurance  and  of 
Christian  perfection,  although  molded  into 
a  system  by  the  help  of  his  logical  faculties 
— occasionally  employed,  as  we  venture  to 
think,  with  more  of  verbal  truth-seeming 
than  of  realistic  and  truth-reaching  insight 
— yet  reposed  in  their  broad  power  and 
merits  on  the  basis  of  living  consciousness 
and  experience.  Whether  as  a  logical  ex- 
positor, however,  or  as  a  witness,  and  the 
mouth-piece  of  other  witnesses,  Wesley  was 
never  a  dry,  or  a  merely  scholastic  and  sys- 
tematic, theologian  ;  there  was  always  in  his 
teaching  as  a  theologian  a  living  freshness 
of  thought  and  a  philosophic  basis  and  mold 
of  exposition.  Even  as  a  boy,  he  was  sin- 
gularly remarkable  for  reflectiveness  ;  and 
his  Oxford  discipline  in  early  life — the  influ- 
ence, also,  of  Plato  and  Aristotle,  of  Taylor, 
and  Beveridge,  and  Law — had  contributed 
their  full  share  to  the  permanent  color  and 
quality  of  his  intellectual  character. 

Through  all  the  preparatory  stages  of  his 
life,   Wesley   was    emphatically   a    learner. 


164  The  Living  Wesley. 

All  through  life,  indeed,  he  was  a  man  of  a 
peculiarly  open  and  teachable  mind  ;  as  much 
so  in  his  ninth  as  in  his  third  decade.  But 
during  the  first  five-and-thirty  years  of  his 
life  he  was  not  only  a  learner,  but  he  was 
in  quest  of  a  teacher;  he  was  looking  out 
for  a  school  in  which  to  study  and  graduate ; 
he  was  unsettled  in  his  principles.  He 
went  to  school  to  the  Rubric,  and  being  a 
loyal  son  of  the  Church  of  England,  he 
worked  long  and  assiduously  in  that  school ; 
but  this,  after  all,  was  only  grinding  at  the 
elements — "  beggarly  elements "  he  found 
them  to  be  in  after  days  ;  he  went  to  school 
to  Law,  and  for  some  years  Law  was  his 
oracle,  until  he  found  that  he  durst  not  any 
longer  follow  the  hazardous  excursions  of 
his  teacher ;  he  sat  as  a  scholar  at  the  feet 
of  the  Moravians  during  his  voyage  to 
Georgia,  and  in  the  colony,  although  he 
could  not  accept  all  their  teachings ;  he 
wrote  from  Georgia  to  his  brother  Samuel, 
entreating  him  for  correction  and  instruc- 
tion ;  in  the  colony  he  learned  from  Lu- 
theran   Salzburghers    and     from    Scottish 


Wesley's  Ritualism  and  Mysticism.        165 

Presbyterians,  not  indeed,  as  yet,  lessons  of 
true  ecclesiastical  liberality  and  catholicity, 
but  much  which  sunk  deep  into  his  open  and 
thoughtful  mind.  All  through  he  felt  that 
his  system  of  theological  and  ecclesiastical 
principles  remained  yet  to  be  formed ;  he 
had  not  found  his  center  or  his  basis;  he  was 
far  from  being  at  rest.  Nevertheless,  it  is 
notable  that,  with  all  this,  he  felt  that  he 
was  a  teacher  likewise,  and  he  acted  as  such. 
If  he  was  ever  listening  that  he  might  learn, 
he  was  also  ever  speaking  to  instruct.  His 
personal  influence  was  always  very  great; 
there  was  authority  in  his  presence  and  his 
words.  Especially  we  must  note  that  he 
was  under  the  continual  conviction  that  he 
was  destined  to  be  a  chief  teacher — the 
teacher  not  only  of  a  company  in  his  gen- 
eration, but  of  multitudes  in  many  genera- 
tions. This  conviction  is  expressed  with 
startling  distinctness  in  the  letter  to  his  eld- 
er brother  which  we  have  quoted.  Begging 
his  brother  to  give  him  his  thoughts  respect- 
ing the  principles  of  the  Mystics,  as  sum- 
marized in  the  letter,  he  says,  with  singular 


1 66  The  Living  Wesley. 

emphasis,  "  Give  me  them  as  particularly, 
fully,  and  strongly,  as  your  time  will  permit. 
They  may  be  of  consequence,  not  only  to  all 
this  province,  but  to  nations  of  Christians 
yet  unborn."  So  much  did  he  think  might 
depend  on  the  settlement  of  his  own  views 
respecting  Christian  doctrine.  The  same 
sense  of  a  most  important  destiny  for  him- 
self as  a  teacher  of  men  was  expressed  a 
year  or  two  earlier,  in  his  well-known  reason 
for  remaining  at  Oxford  rather  than  succeed 
his  father  in  the  Epworth  rectorate.  "  The 
schools  of  the  prophets,"  he  said,  "  were  at 
Oxford  ;  and  was  it  not  a  more  extensive 
benefit  to  sweeten  the  fountain  than  to 
purify  a  particular  stream  ?"* 

*  It  is  not  necessary  to  the  scope  of  the  discussion  in  the 
text  to  consider  how  far  Wesley  was  justified  in  the  view 
which  he  took  of  his  duty  respecting  the  matter  referred  to 
above.  Not  a  few  have  thought  that  he  ought  to  have  yield- 
ed to  the  urgency  of  what  were  pleaded  as  the  claims  of  fam- 
ily affection  and  duty,  and  have  left  Oxford  for  Epworth. 
Southey  appears  to  have  been  of  this  mind.  Mr.  Tyerman, 
who  gives  a  clear  and  full  account  of  the  whole  question,  evi- 
dently feels  that  Wesley  ought  to  have  yielded  to  his  father's 
and  his  family's  appeals.  He  speaks  of  this  part  of  Wesley's 
history  as  "  somewhat  painfully  mysterious  ;"  and  he  thinks 
that  he,  in  fact,  clears  it  up  by  producing  a  letter  to  show 
that  Wesley  did,  in   the  end,  consent  to  seek,  through  his 


Wesley's  Ritualism  and  Mysticism.        167 

He  seems  to  have  had  a  settled  and  gov- 
erning  conviction   that   there   was   a  great 

friend  Broughton,  at  the  hands  of  Mr.  St.  John,  then  in  high 
office,  a  presentation  to  the  crown  living-  of  Epworth.  Miss 
Wedgwood,  on  the  contrary,  holds  that  Wesley  "  fully  justi- 
fies "  his  insuperable  reluctance  to  leave  Oxford  ;  and  the 
Rev.  J.  Gordon,  in  his  able  and  well-informed  papers  on  Wes- 
ley in  the  "  Theologian,"  *  holds,  in  like  manner,  that  Wesley 
was  perfectly  right  in  his  feelings  upon  the  matter.  I  think 
that,  on  such  a  point,  Wesley  alone  could  be  the  judge  in  his 
own  case.  It  was  a  question  of  personal  conscience  and  con- 
viction. "  He  felt  that  he  had  a  vocation  to  teach  thinkers 
and  teachers,  to  teach  in  the  schools  of  the  prophets  ;"  that  to 
him  was  duty.  He  knew  what  a  country  parish  and  parish 
duty  were  ;  he  had  served  more  than  two  years  at  Wroote  ; 
and  he  felt  that  a  country  cure  was  not  his  vocation.  It 
seems  probable,  from  the  evidence  which  Mr.  Tyerman  has 
produced,  that,  at  the  last,  Wesley  did,  against  his  own  prop- 
er judgment  and  will,  allow  an  application  to  be  made  on  his 
behalf  for  presentation  to  Epworth  in  succession  to  his  father. 
Miss  Wedgwood,  also,  has,  from  other  data,  arrived  at  the 
same  conclusion.  "  It  appears,  however,"  she  says,  "  from 
an  obscure  sentence  in  a  letter  of  Charles  Wesley's,  that  John 
did  at  last  make  an  unsuccessful  and  reluctant  application 
for  the  living."  I  do  not  know  to  what  letter  she  refers,  and 
Mr.  Tyerman,  who  knows  almost  every  thing  about  the  Wes- 
leys,  makes  no  reference  to  any  such  sentence  in  any  letter  of 
Charles  ;  but  the  coincidence  between  Mr.  Tyerman 's  and 
Miss  Wedgwood's  conclusion  is  striking.  Still  this  fact,  if  it 
be  a  fact,  does  not  at  all  change  the  general  aspect  of  the 
affair,  and  it  remains  true,  notwithstanding,  that  Wesley,  to 
use  his  own  words,  "  continued  in  his  purpose  to  live  and  die 
at  Oxford,  till  Dr.  Burton  pressed  him  to  go  to  Georgia." 
I  may  fairly  assume  that  he  neither  expected  nor  desired  the  ap- 
plication to  which  he  reluctantly  consented  to  be  successful. 

♦For  April  and  July,  1871. 


1 68  The  Living  Wesley. 

work  to  be  done  for  the  Church  and  the 
world,  for  the  present  and  yet  more  for  the 
future  ;  a  work  which  God  had  called  him  to 
do.  He  saw  around  him  the  need  of  such 
a  work — a  hollow  and  heartless  world,  full 
of  corruption,  vanity,  and  unrest,  and  a  su- 
pine, undisciplined,  insensible  Church  ;  and 
he  felt  stirring  strongly  within  him  the  pow- 
er and  the  call  to  awaken  and  organize  the 
Church,  and  to  impress  and  convert  the 
world. 

Such  was  John  Wesley,  the  Oxford  Meth- 
odist and  the  Georgian  missionary.  Such, 
on  the  whole,  he  appears  to  have  remained 
up  to  the  time  of  his  quitting  Georgia. 
Nevertheless,  as  we  have  seen,  the  intoler- 
ant High-church  ritualist  was  all  the  time, 
and  especially  toward  the  end  of  his  stay  in 
Georgia,  inwardly  beginning  to  melt ;  the 
light  of  spiritual  liberty,  even  before  he  quit- 
ted Georgia,  was  beginning  to  break  through 
the  darkness  which  had  so  long  wrapped 
him  round,  and  to  dawn  into  his  soul  ;  and 
during  the  spiritual  solitude  of  his  voyage 
home    he    must    have    learned    much,  and 


Wesley1  s  Ritualism  and  Mysticism.        169 

learned  quickly.  When  he  landed  at  Deal 
he  was  a  very  different  man  from  what  he 
had  been  two  years  and  a  half  before,  when 
he  sailed  for  Georgia.  This  is  shown  by 
the  reflections  which  at  that  time  he  wrote 
in  his  Journal.  It  is  evident  that  his  inter- 
course in  the  colony  with  Moravians,  Saltz- 
burghers,  and  Presbyterians,  in  connection 
with  his  experience  of  his  own  errors  and 
failures,  and  with  the  diligent  and  prayerful 
study  of  the  Scriptures,  had  profited  him 
more,  upon  recollection  and  reconsideration, 
during  the  voyage,  than  during  the  time  he 
was  in  the  colony,  and  while  he  was  active- 
ly enforcing  his  own  strongly-held  views,  and 
was  occupied  in  the  routine  of  Church  serv- 
ice and  rubrical  ceremonial. 


170  The  Living  Wesley. 


CHAPTER  II. 

WESLEY'S    EVANGELICAL    CONVERSION. 

tHE  following  are  the  reflections  to 
which  I  have  referred,  as  written  down 
by  Wesley  immediately  after  his  return  to 
England.  They  are  so  important  that,  not- 
withstanding their  length,  I  must  give  them 
entire,  with  the  notes  which  Wesley  ap- 
pended to  them  in  the  later  editions  of  his 
Journal : — 

"It  is  now  two  years  and  almost  four 
months  since  I  left  my  native  country  in 
order  to  teach  the  Georgian  Indians  the 
nature  of  Christianity ;  but  what  have  I 
learned  myself  in  the  meantime  ?  Why 
(what  I  least  of  all  expected)  that  I,  who 
went  to  America  to  convert  others,  was 
never  myself  converted  to  God.*  '  I  am  not 
mad/  though  I  thus  speak ;  but  '  I  speak 
the  words  of  truth  and  soberness  ;'  if  haply 

*  I  am  not  sure  of  this. 


Wesley's  Evangelical  Conversion.  ijl 

some  of  those  who  still  dream  may  awake, 
and  see  that  as  I  am  so  are  they. 

"  Are  they  read  in  philosophy  ?  So  was  I. 
In  ancient  or  modern  tongues?  So  was  I 
also.  Are  they  versed  in  the  science  of 
divinity  ?  I  too  have  studied  it  many  years. 
Can  they  talk  fluently  upon  spiritual  things? 
The  very  same  could  I  do.  Are  they  plen- 
teous in  alms  ?  Behold,  I  gave  all  my  goods 
to  feed  the  poor.  Do  they  give  of  their 
labor  as  well  as  of  their  substance  ?  I  have 
labored  more  abundantly  than  they  all. 
Are  they  willing  to  suffer  for  their  brethren  ? 
I  have  thrown  up  my  friends,  reputation, 
ease,  country ;  I  have  put  my  life  in  my 
hand,  wandering  into  strange  lands  ;  I  have 
given  my  body  to  be  devoured  by  the  deep, 
parched  up  with  heat,  consumed  by  toil 
and  weariness,  or  whatsoever  God  should 
please  to  bring  upon  me.  But  does  all  this 
(be  it  more  or  less  it  matters  not)  make 
me  acceptable  to  God  ?  Does  all  I  ever 
did  or  can  know,  say,  give,  do,  or  suffer, 
justify  me  in  his  sight  ?  Yea,  or  the  con- 
stant use  of  all  the  means  of  grace  ?  (which, 


172  The  Living  Wesley. 

nevertheless,  is  meet,  right,  and  our  bound- 
en  duty.)  Or  that  I  know  nothing  of  my- 
self; that  I  am,  as  touching  outward  moral 
righteousness,  blameless  ?  Or,  to  come 
closer  yet,  the  having  a  rational  conviction 
of  all  the  truths  of  Christianity?  Does  all 
this  give  me  a  claim  to  the  holy,  heavenly, 
divine  character  of  a  Christian  ?  By  no 
means.  If  the  oracles  of  God  are  true, 
if  we  are  still  to  abide  by  '  the  law  and 
the  testimony ;'  all  these  things,  though, 
when  ennobled  by  faith  in  Christ,*  they 
are  holy,  and  just,  and  good,  yet  without 
it  are  '  dung  and  dross/  meet  only  to  be 
purged  away  by  '  the  fire  that  never  shall 
be  quenched.' 

"  This,  then,  have  I  learned  in  the  ends  of 
the  earth,  that  I  '  am  fallen  short  of  the 
glory  of  God  ;'  that  my  whole  heart  is  '  al- 
together corrupt  and  abominable  ;'  and,  con- 
sequently, my  whole  life  ;  seeing  it  cannot 
be  that  an  'evil  tree'  should  'bring  forth 
good  fruit/  that  'alienated'  as   I   am  from 

*  I  had  even  then  the  faith  of  a  servant,  though  not  that 
of  a  son. 


Wesley's  Evangelical  Conversion.  173 

the  life  of  God,  I  am'a  child  of  wrath,'  *  an 
heir  of  hell ;  that  my  own  works,  my  own 
sufferings,  my  own  righteousness,  are  so  far 
from  reconciling  me  to  an  offended  God — ■ 
so  far  from  making  any  atonement  for  the 
least  of  those  sins,  which  '  are  more  in  num- 
ber than  the  hairs  of  my  head ' — that  the  most 
specious  of  them  need  an  atonement  them- 
selves, or  they  cannot  abide  his  righteous 
judgment ;  that,  '  having  the  sentence  of 
death  '  in  my  heart,  and  having  nothing  in 
or  of  myself  to  plead,  I  have  no  hope  but 
that  of  being  'justified  freely  through  the 
redemption  that  is  in  Jesus  ;'  I  have  no  hope 
but  that  if  I  seek  I  shall  find  Christ,  and 
'  be  found  in  him,  not  having  my  own  right- 
eousness, but  that  which  is  through  the  faith 
of  Christ,  the  righteousness  which  is  of  God 
by  faith.'  Phil,  iii,  9. 

"  If  it  be  said  that  I  have  faith,  (for  many 
such  things  have  I  heard  from  many  miser- 
able comforters,)  I  answer,  So  have  the 
devils — a  sort  of  faith  ;  but  still  they  are 
strangers  to  the  covenant  of  promise.     So 

*  I  believe  not. 


174  The  Living  Wesley. 

the  apostles  had  even  at  Cana  in  Galilee, 
when  Jesus  first  '  manifested  forth  his  glory  ; 
even  then  they,  in  a  sort,  '  believed  on  him/ 
but  they  had  not  then  'the  faith  that  over- 
cometh  the  world.'  The  faith  I  want  is* 
'A  sure  trust  and  confidence  in  God,  that, 
through  the  merits  of  Christ,  my  sins  are 
forgiven,  and  I  reconciled  to  the  favor  of 
God.'  I  want  that  faith  which  St.  Paul 
recommends  to  all  the  world,  especially  in 
his  Epistle  to  the  Romans  ;  that  faith  which 
enables  every  one  that  hath  it  to  cry  out,  '  I 
live  not ;  but  Christ  liveth  in  me  ;  and  the 
life  which  I  now  live,  I  live  by  faith  in  the 
Son  of  God,  who  loved  me,  and  gave  him- 
self for  me.'  I  want  that  faith  which  none 
can  have  without  knowing  that  he  hath  it, 
(though  many  imagine  they  have  it  who 
have  it  not,)  for  whosoever  hath  it  is  '  freed 
from  sin,'  the  whole  '  body  of  sin  is  de- 
stroyed' in  him:  he  is  'freed  from  fear/ 
'having  peace  with  God  through  Christ, and 
rejoicing  in  hope  of  the  glory  of  God.'  And 
he  is  freed  from  doubt,  '  having  the  love  of 

*  The  faith  of  a  son. 


Wesley's  Evangelical  Conversion.  175 

God  shed  abroad  in  the  heart  through  the 
Holy  Ghost  which  is  given  unto  him  ;'  which 
'  Spirit  itself  beareth  witness  with  his  spirit 
that  he  is  a  child  of  God.' " 

Here  was  evidently  a  spirit  prepared  of 
the  Lord  to  receive  the  glad  tidings  of  "  sal- 
vation by  faith,"  in  the  simplest  and  most 
evangelical  form.  Wesley  was  already  on 
the  very  verge  of  the  truth  in  its  free- 
dom and  fullness.  He  was  "  convinced  of 
sin  ;"  was  truly  awakened  and  penitent,  and 
was  feeling  after,  was  yearning  for,  the  true 
11  righteousness  of  Christ."  It  was  natural 
that  his  humbled  and  chastened  spirit,  in 
the  depth  of  its  penitential  awakening, 
should  "  write  bitter  things  "  against  itself. 
In  after  years,  writing  in  the  fullness  of  his 
wide  and  mature  Christian  experience, 
Wesley  revised  the  language  which  he  had 
written  in  his  sore  trouble  of  spirit.  To  the 
passage  which  declares  that  he  had  never 
been  "  converted  to  God,"  he  appended  as 
a  note  the  words,  "  I  am  not  sure  of  this." 
Evidently  the  question  here  is  as  to  the 
meaning  of  the  word  "converted."     In  one 


176  The  Living  Wesley. 

sense  Wesley  was  truly  and  deeply  "  con- 
verted ;"  in  another  sense  he  was  not  yet 
"  converted,"  not  having  as  yet  been  made  a 
partaker  of  the  "  righteousness  of  faith,"  in 
iis  full  and  true  evangelical  sense.  He  also, 
in  his  later  revisions,  corrected  the  record 
in  his  Journal  at  some  other  points,  by  stat- 
ing that  "  he  had  even  then  the  faith  of  a 
servant,  though  not  of  a  son,"  and  that  he 
was  not  at  that  time  "  a  child  of  wrath," 
although  he  had  not  attained  to  that  "  faith 
toward  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,"  which  im- 
plies filial  confidence,  and  cannot  but  bring 
with  it  filial  love,  the  witness  of  the  Spirit, 
and  all  the  fruits  which  belong  to  the  new 
birth.  A  controversy  has  been  raised  upon 
this  question,  into  which  I  do  not  feel  it 
needful  to  go.  Mr.  Wesley's  "  Notes  on  the 
New  Testament,"  especially  if  the  notes  are 
taken  in  connection  with  those  sermons  of 
his  later  life  in  which  he  discriminates  be- 
tween the  faith  and  experience  of  a  "  serv- 
ant "  of  God  and  of  a  "  son,"  are  fully  suffi- 
cient to  explain  in  what  sense  Mr.  Wesley 
may  be  truly  said  to  have  been,  and  in  what 


Wesley's  Evangelical  Conversion.  177 

sense  not  to  have  been,  "  converted  "  at  the 
time  of  his  return  from  Georgia  in  the  first 
months  of  1738.  One  thing  all  must  be 
agreed  upon,  that  Wesley  was  a  man  of  very 
different  spirit  and  experience  in  February 
1738  from  what  he  had  been  three  years 
before.  He  was  then  sincere  and  in  earnest, 
but  oscillating  between  an  unevangelical 
mysticism  and  an  equally  unevangelical  rit- 
ualistic legalism  ;  he  was  "  beating  the  air," 
and  "  going  about  to  establish  his  own  right- 
eousness." Of  the  true  doctrine  of  grace  he 
seems  to  have  had  little  perception  or  feel- 
ing, any  more  than  of  the  true  doctrine  of 
faith — the  one,  indeed,  must  ever  imply  the 
other — for  salvation  is  "  of  grace,  through 
faith;"  nor  does  he  appear  to  have  been  the 
subject  of  a  true  "  evangelical  repentance." 
Now,  on  the  contrary,  Wesley  was  evidently 
a  true  and  lowly  penitent,  whom  the  Spirit 
of  God  had  emptied  of  his  own  self-right- 
eousness, that  he  might  be  prepared  for  the 
reception  of  Christ's  righteousness — "  the 
righteousness    which    is    of    God    through 

faith." 
12 


178  The  Living  Wesley. 

In  one  thing,  however,  Wesley  was  not 
changed  on  his  return.  He  still  believed  as 
firmly  as  ever  in  his  "vocation."  He  land- 
ed at  Deal  at  half  past  four  in  the  morning. 
That  same  morning,  at  a  very  early  hour, 
before  starting  for  Faversham  on  his  way  to 
London,  he  read  and  expounded  at  the  inns, 
and  he  did  the  like  after  arriving  at  Faver- 
sham in  the  evening.  His  humbling  expe- 
rience in  Georgia  had  not  in  the  least  dis- 
heartened him,  or  abated  his  courage  in  this 
respect.  Since  he  left  England  he  had 
seemed  to  fail  in  every  thing  ;  his  influence 
as  a  clergyman  had  declined  almost  to  noth- 
ing in  Georgia ;  he  had  become  embroiled 
in  law,  partly,  at  least,  through  his  own  un- 
wisdom, if  partly  through  his  fidelity ;  his 
reputation  as  a  man  of  counsel  and  of  action 
could  not  but  have  suffered  ;  many  slanders 
respecting  him  were  afloat ;  his  heart,  for 
which  it  seemed  as  if  no  haven  of  conjugal 
affection  was  to  be  found,  had  been  cruelly 
wounded.  Such  was  the  issue  of  a  voyage 
and  mission  which  he  had  undertaken  in 
the  fond  hope  that  in  a  new  world  he  might, 


Wesley's  Eva?igelical  Conversion.  179 

in  God's  hands,  be  and  do  something  better 
and  something  more  in  his  own  time  and 
for  generations  to  come,  than  he  had  ever 
been,  had  ever  done,  or  could  have  hoped 
to  be  or  do,  even  in  Oxford,  where  were 
"  the  schools  of  the  prophets,"  if  he  had 
spent  his  best  days  there. 

It  could  not  but  frequently  recur  to  Wes- 
ley, in  his  meditations  on  the  history  of 
the  two  hapless-seeming  years  he  had  spent 
in  America,  that  there  must  somewhere  be 
a  vital,  a  fatal,  flaw  either  in  his  character, 
or  in  his  doctrine,  or  in  his  methods.  His 
enterprise  as  a  missionary  pioneer  had 
broken  down  in  a  most  humiliating  way. 

It  is  true,  indeed,  as  Mr.  Tyerman  happily 
quotes  Whitefield's  "Journal,"  written  but 
a  few  months  later,  to  show  that,  after  all, 
Wesley  had  left  not  a  little  good  behind 
him  in  Georgia  ;  that  among  the  best  peo- 
ple of  the  colony  "his  name"  was  "very 
precious,"  and  that  he  had  laid  a  valuable 
foundation  for  Whitefield  to  build  upon. 
But  to  Wesley's  mind  on  his  voyage  home 
his   failures   would    be   present,  while    the 


180  The   Living  Wesley. 

measure  of  his  success  would  be  as  yet  un- 
known. Nor,  after  all,  was  that  measure  of 
success,  which  we  cannot  but  place  in  con- 
trast with  the  results  accomplished  in 
Georgia  by  Whitefield's  own  ministry,  suf- 
ficient to  do  more  than  qualify,  to  a  limited 
extent,  the  picture  of  failure,  on  the  whole, 
which  has  passed  under  our  view. 

His  Journal  reveals  to  us,  in  part,  the 
working  of  his  mind  during  the  voyage. 
He  exerted  himself  to  the  utmost  for  the 
good  of  the  seamen ;  but  this  could  only 
yield  him  partial  and  temporary  relief. 
During  the  first  six  weeks  of  the  voyage  he 
was  "  continually  weighed  down  with  fear- 
fulness  and  heaviness. '  He  writes,  in  the 
fullness  of  his  heart,  among  many  other 
words  of  lamentation,  that  he  had  thus  far 
"  evidently  built  without  a  foundation." 
During  the  last  fortnight  he  had  some  com- 
fort ;  but  yet  he  writes,  five  days  before  the 
voyage  came  to  an  end,  "  I  went  to  Amer- 
ica to  convert  the  Indians;  but  O!  who 
shall  convert  me  ?  Who,  what,  is  he  that 
will  deliver  me  from  this  evil  heart  of  unbe- 


Wesley's  Evangelical  Conversion.  i8r 

lief?  I  have  a  fair  summer  religion.  I  can 
talk  well  ;  nay,  and  believe  myself,  while  no 
danger  is  near ;  but  let  death  look  me  in 
the  face,  and  my  spirit  is  troubled.  Nor 
can  I  say,  "  To  die  is  gain  ! " 

"  I  have  a  sin  of  fear,  that  when  I've  spun 
My  last  thread,  I  shall  perish  on  the  shore  !" 

Such  was  the  working1  of  Wesley's  mind 
during  his  voyage  home  from  Georgia — a 
period  which  we  may  look  upon  as  for  him  a 
critical  season  of  searching,  gracious,  hum- 
bling experience  ;  a  seed-time  overcast  with 
heavy  clouds,  but  rich  in  promise  ;  a  seed- 
time of  weeping,  which  was  to  be  followed 
by  a  life-long  harvest  of  spiritual  fruitfulness. 

Wesley,  during  the  voyage,  deliberately 
reviewed  his  whole  experience,  and  the 
phases  of  thought  and  feeling  through 
which  he  had  been  passing  during  the 
twelve  years  preceding.  Of  this  review  we 
have  already  availed  ourselves,  especially  in 
the  former  Part,  in  delineating  the  forma- 
tion  of  his  opinions  and  the  growth  of  his 
character.  We  have  seen  how  near,  before 
he  landed  at  Deal,  Wesley  had  come  to  the 


1 82  The  Living  Wesley. 

simplicity  and  truth  of  Gospel  teaching. 
This  "  scribe  "  certainly  was  "  not  far  from 
the  kingdom  of  God."  The  Providence 
which  had  brought  him  thus  far  on  his  way 
— which  had  brought  "  the  blind  by  a  way 
that  he  knew  not,  even  by  paths  which  he 
had  not  known" — had  in  readiness  for  him  at 
this  very  point  the  human  guide  who  was 
to  lead  him  into  the  fullness  of  evangelical 
faith  and  experience.  "  Darkness "  was 
now  to  be  made  "light  before  him,"  and 
"  crooked  things  straight."  What  Philip 
was  to  the  Ethiopian  eunuch,  what  Peter 
was  to  Cornelius,  Bohler  was  to  become  to 
Wesley. 

At  the  very  moment  when  Wesley  landed 
at  Deal  his  teacher  was  on  his  way  to  En- 
gland from  Germany.  He  was  a  Moravian 
minister;  and  came  to  England  that  he 
might  go  forward  to  the  very  colonies  which 
Wesley  had  just  left.  Within  a  week  after 
Wesley's  landing  at  Deal,  he  and  Bohler 
met  in  London.  Bohler,  in  a  letter  to  Zin- 
zendorf,  gives  a  description  of  Wesley  as 
he    found   him.     He    describes    him  as  "a 


Wesley's  Evangelical  Conversion.  1 83 

good-natured  man/'  *  who  "  knew  he  did  not 
properly  believe  on  the  Saviour,  and  was 
willing  to  be  taught."  He  adds :  "  Our 
mode  of  believing  in  the  Saviour  is  so  easy 
to  Englishmen,  that  they  cannot  reconcile 
themselves  to  it ;  if  it  were  a  little  more 
artful,  [artificial  ?]  they  would  much  sooner 
find  their  way  into  it.  They  justify  them- 
selves ;  and  therefore  they  always  take  it 
for  granted  that  they  believe  already,  and 
try  to  prove  their  faith  by  their  works,  and 
thus  so  plague  and  torment  themselves 
that  they  are  at  heart  very  miserable."  f 

Wesley  always  regarded  his  intercourse 
with  Bohler  as  the  cardinal  point  in  his 
spiritual  history.  Having  landed  at  Deal 
on  February  1,  he  fell  in,  six  days  later, 
(February  7,)  with  Bohler,  just  landed  from 
Germany,  and  procured  him  lodgings.  He 
sets  a  special  note  against  this  day  in  his 
Journal,  as  "a  day  much  to  be  remem- 
bered ; "    and    he    mentions  that,  from  this 

*The  English  translation  here  is,  no  doubt,  inadequate. 
The  meaning  probably  is — a  man  of  excellent  disposition  and 
principles. 

t  Tyerman's  "  Wesley,"  i,  181,  182. 


184  The  Living  Wesley, 

time,  he  did  not  willingly  lose  any  opportu- 
nity, during  his  stay  in  London,  of  convers- 
ing with  Bohler  and  his  companions.  He 
accompanied  his  Moravian  teacher  to  Ox- 
ford on  the  17th,  and  took  him  with  him  to 
visit  Mr.  Gambold,  (who  had  been  led 
astray  by  "mystic  delusion/')  at  Stanton- 
Harcourt,  on  the  18th.  It  was  during  this 
visit  to  Oxford  that  Bohler  insisted  so  sol- 
emnly to  Wesley  that  "  his  philosophy " 
needed  to  "be  purged  away."  On  the  4th 
of  March,  returning  to  Oxford  to  visit  his 
brother  Charles,  who  had  been  ill  of  pleu- 
risy there,  he  found  Bohler  with  his  brother, 
and  writes  that  by  him  on  the  next  day 
(Sunday)  he  was  "  clearly  convinced  of  un- 
belief, of  the  want  of  that  faith  whereby 
alone  we  are  saved."*  Meantime  Bohler 
exhorted  him  to  preach  the  true  faith  and 
way  of  faith,  though  he  might  not  himself 
as  yet  have  attained  thereto.  His  inter- 
course with  his  Moravian  guide  at  Oxford 
lasted  till  the  ioth,when  Bohler  returned  to 

♦"With  the  full  Christian  salvation,"  is  Wesley's  note  at 
this  place  in  the  revised  edition  of  his  early  Journals. 


Wesley's  Evangelical  Conversion.  185 

London.  On  the  23d,  being  in  Oxford,  he 
met  Bohler  there  a^ain.  We  give  the 
whole  of  the  entry  in  his  Journal  under  this 
date.  "  I  met  Peter  Bohler  again,  who  now 
amazed  me  more  and  more  by  the  account 
he  gave  of  the  fruits  of  living  faith — the 
holiness  and  happiness  which  he  affirmed 
to  attend  it.  The  next  morning  I  began 
the  Greek  Testament  again,  resolving  to 
abide  by  '  the  law  and  the  testimony,'  and 
being  confident  that  God  would  hereby 
show  me  whether  this  doctrine  was  of  God." 
Already  the  "  new  wine  "  of  the  kingdom 
was  working  mightily  within  his  breast. 
He  had  been  the  slave  of  forms ;  he  had 
been  greatly  surprised,  if  not  shocked,  when 
he  heard  the  Presbyterian  minister  in  the 
American  colony  offer  an  extemporary 
prayer.  But  now  we  find  him  writing, 
under  date  of  April  1,  "  Being  at  Mr.  Fox's 
society,  my  heart  was  so  full  that  I  could 
not  confine  myself  to  the  forms  of  prayer 
which  we  were  accustomed  to  use  there. 
Neither  do  I  purpose  to  be  confined  to 
them  any   more,  but  to   pray  indifferently, 


1 86  The   Living  Wesley. 

with  a  form  or  without,  as  I  may  find  suit- 
able to  particular  occasions."  The  new 
wine  was  threatening  to  burst  the  "  old  bot- 
tles ;"  presently  "  new  bottles  "  were  to  be 
provided,  so  that  the  wine  should  not  be 
lost.  Meantime,  in  the  record  last  quoted, 
we  recognize  the  main  principle  of  Wes- 
ley's ecclesiastical  course.  His  singularity, 
and  independence  of  decision  and  action, 
had  nothing  factious  about  them  ;  they  re- 
sulted from  the  simple,  disinterested,  para- 
mount principle  of  using  whatever  means 
or  methods  of  action  clearly  promised  to 
do  the  most  good.  He  enters  into  no  ab- 
stract controversy  as  to  praying  with  or 
without  forms ;  probably  his  experiences 
among  the  Moravians,  yet  more  than  his 
intercourse  with  the  Presbyterian  minister 
and  congregation,  had  served  to  emancipate 
him  from  the  bondage  of  custom  and  servile 
ecclesiasticism  as  to  this  particular,  while 
an  acute  Oxford  Churchman  like  him  was 
not  likely  to  adopt  a  sweeping  condemna- 
tion of  forms  of  prayer,  which  would  not 
only  have  prohibited  the  use  of  the  Liturgy 


Wesley's  Evangelical  Conversion.  187 

of  his  own  Church,  ever  by  him  so  deeply 
loved,  but  even  of  the  Lord's  prayer.  But 
he  finds  free  prayer,  under  certain  condi- 
tions of  feeling,  to  be  more  congenial,  more 
adequate,  and  more  affecting,  than  any  form 
could  be ;  therefore  he  determines  hence- 
forth to  hold  himself  at  liberty,  according 
to  the  occasion,  to  pray  with  or  without 
forms.  As  to  any  reproach  of  singularity 
or  enthusiasm,  while  he  by  no  means 
courted  such  reproach,  the  time  had  long 
gone  by  when  it  could  have  any  terror  for 
him.  Here,  then,  we  have  a  typical  in- 
stance, thus  early  in  his  course,  of  the  spirit 
and  principles  which  governed  Wesley's 
proceedings  through  life.  The  ritualist 
was  already  greatly  changed  ;  a  new  inspi- 
ration was  welling  up  within  him.  His 
bonds  had  been  for  some  time  melting 
away  ;  there  was  soon  to  be  an  end  of  them. 
Already  the  manacles  had  dissolved  from 
the  hands  of  devotion ;  soon  the  fetters 
wTould  be  broken  which  had  bound  his  feet 
from  running  in  the  evangelical  way.  Al- 
ready  he    had    been    impelled    to  use    the 


1 88  The  Living  Wesley. 

blessed  privilege  of  free  utterance  in  prayer, 
and  to  avail  himself  of  the  large  liberty  to 
pray  with  "all  prayer  and  supplication  in 
the  Spirit ;"  the  day  was  very  near  when,  by 
his  preaching  also,  the  Word  of  the  Lord 
was  to  "  have  free  course  and  be  glorified." 
On  the  2 2d  of  April  Wesley  met  Bohler 
again  in  London.  As  to  the  nature  of  faith 
the  Moravian  had  prevailed,  and  also  as  to 
the  fruits  of  faith ;  but  Wesley  still  doubted 
whether  there  was  scriptural  authority  for 
the  penitent,  prayerful,  waiting  soul,  to  ex- 
pect to  receive  the  power  and  gift  of  faith 
immediately  through  the  operation  of  the 
Holy  Ghost;  whether  it  could  really  be 
imparted  in  a  moment.  Here,  again,  he 
records  in  his  Journal  that  he  was  silenced 
by  an  appeal  to  the  Scripture,  where,  to  his 
"utter  astonishment,"  he  "found  scarce  any 
instances  there  of  other  than  instantaneous 
conversions,  scarce  any  so  slow  as  that  of 
St.  Paul,  who  was  three  days  in  the  pangs 
of  the  new  birth."  Wesley,  however,  was 
not  by  any  means  easily  beaten  out  of  his 
English  and  Church-of-England   habits  of 


Wesley's  Evangelical  Conversion.  189 

thought  in  respect  to  the  supernatural 
faith  of  a  spiritual  Christian,  who  rejoices  in 
the  full  power  and  privilege  of  Christian 
sonship.  He  urged  that,  whatever  might 
have  been  the  case  in  apostolic  times,  there 
was  no  proof  that  God  worked  in  the  same 
manner  now.  From  this  last  hold  of  doubt 
and  incredulity  he  was  dislodged  the  next 
day  (Sunday,  the  23d)  by  the  evidence  of 
"  several  living  witnesses."  "  Here,"  he  says, 
"ended  my  disputing.  I  could  now  only 
cry  out,  '  Lord,  help  thou  mine  unbelief.'" 

It  is  evident  that  up  to  this  time,  far  as 
he  had  been  brought  on  his  way  toward  the 
great  Gospel  truth,  Wesley  had  yet  never 
been  able  to  free  himself  from  the  feeling 
that  Christian  faith  was  largely  an  intellect- 
ual exercise  ;  and  that,  where  it  ceased  to  be 
intellectual,  it  became  a  humanly  moral  act ; 
that  it  was  "of  the  operation,"  not  "of  the 
Holy  Ghost,"  but  of  a  man's  own  under- 
standing and  responsible  moral  inclination 
or  will.  The  great  truth  that  the  power 
descends  from  God — that  it  must  be  waited 
and  looked  for    in  the  way  of  prayer  and 


190  The  Living  Wesley. 

penitent  seeking  and  service — that  it  is  a 
spiritual,  supernatural  act  and  habit  of  soul, 
at  once  the  fruit  and  seed  of  a  Divine  life- 
stirring,  uniting  in  itself  the  characters  of 
penitent  humility,  of  self-renunciation,  of 
simple  trust,  of  absolute  obedience,  both  of 
understanding  and  will,  indissolubly  joined 
with  loving  rapture  and  self-consecration — 
that  it  is,  to  use  Wesley's  own  words,  "  the 
loving,  obedient  sight  of  a  present  and 
reconciled  God " — this  was  a  truth  which 
Wesley  had  not  conceived  of,  and  found  it 
very  hard  to  accept.  So  true  is  it,  that 
11  the  natural  man  receiveth  not  the  things  of 
the  Spirit  of  God ;  for  they  are  foolishness 
unto  him  :  neither  can  he  know  them,  be- 
cause they  are  spiritually  discerned."  Wes- 
ley, indeed,  was  not,  at  the  time  when  he 
first  met  Bohler,  a  merely  "natural  man," 
any  more  than  the  disciples  were  before  our 
Lord's  resurrection.  But  he  was  not  yet, 
in  the  full  and  proper  sense,  "  a  spiritual 
man."  He  was  a  servant  of  God  ;  perhaps, 
in  a  certain  sense,  he  might  be  regarded  as 
virtually  a    child  of  God  ;  but  still    he  was 


Wesley's  Evangelical  Conversion.  191 

"carnal."  He  was  not  yet  fully  born  into 
the  kingdom  of  heaven,  with  its  spiritual 
light  and  blessedness,  although  he  was 
"  brought  to  the  birth,"  and  was  very  near 
the  hour  of  his  enlargement  into  the  "  glo- 
rious liberty  of  the  children  of  God." 

Wesley,  in  his  own  epitome  of  what 
passed  between  Bohler  and  himself,  thus 
sums  up  the  final  result,  so  far  as  it  re- 
spected the  change  which  had  been  wrought 
in  his  doctrinal  views  :  "  I  was  now  thor- 
oughly convinced  ;  and,  by  the  grace  of 
God,  I  resolved  to  seek  it  (that  is,  faith) 
unto  the  end  :  1.  By  absolutely  renouncing 
all  dependence,  in  whole  or  in  part,  upon  my 
own  works  or  righteousness,  on  which  I  had 
really  grounded  my  hope  of  salvation,  though 
I  knew  it  not,  from  my  youth  up.  2.  By 
adding  to  the  constant  use  of  all  the  other 
means  of  grace,  continual  prayer  for  this 
very  thing — justifying,  saving  faith;  a  full 
reliance  on  the  blood  of  Christ  shed  for  me  ; 
a  trust  in  him  as  my  Christ,  as  my  sole  jus- 
tification, sanctification,  and  redemption."* 

*"  Works,"  vol.  iii.  p.  7j- 


192  The  Living  Wesley. 

Wesley  continued  to  consort  with  Bohler. 
It  was  on  the  22a!  of  April  (Sunday)  that 
he  was  finally  convinced.  He  was  in  con- 
tinual intercourse  with  his  teacher  for  sev- 
eral days  following,  until  the  26th,  when 
Bohler  accompanied  him  some  miles  on 
his  way  out  of  town.  His  brother's  illness 
brought  him  back  to  London  on  the  1st  of 
May,  where  he  found  his  friend  and  guide 
again.  On  the  4th  Bohler  left  London  to  sail 
to  Carolina.  Wesley's  note  in  his  Journal 
on  Bohler's  departure  corresponds  with  the 
emphatic  "  Memorandum "  inscribed  over 
the  date  of  their  first  meeting,  and  reveals 
also  how  deep  and  strong  in  Wesley's  soul 
was  that  conviction  of  his  own  momentous 
work  and  vocation  to  which  we  have  re- 
ferred :  "  O  what  a  work  hath  God  begun 
since  his  coming  into  England  !  such  a 
one  as  shall  never  come  to  an  end  till 
heaven  and  earth  shall  pass  away ! " 

Meantime,  Wesley  had  not  yet  obtained 
the  treasure  he  had  sought  for  so  long  and 
so  diligently,  though  for  a  long  time  in 
wrong  directions.     He  had  not  himself,  as 


Wesley's  Evangelical  Conversion.  193 

yet,  been  able  to  "  believe  unto  salvation." 
His  brother  Charles  had  not  yielded  to 
Border's  arguments  until  a  fortnight  after 
himself,  and,  indeed,  had  for  a  short  time 
angrily  opposed  John  on  this  point ;  never- 
theless, partly,  as  it  would  seem,  through 
the  ministry  of  sickness,  he  was  made  a  par- 
taker of  "joy  and  peace  through  believing" 
earlier  than  John.  While  John  was  enter- 
ing this  Bethesda,  Charles  stepped  in  before 
him.  This  was  on  Sunday,  the  19th  of  May. 
It  was  not  until  Wednesday,  the  24th,  that 
John  Wesley, according  to  the  beautiful  and 
familiar  account  which  we  have  in  his  own 
words,  "  felt  his  heart  strangely  warmed,  felt 
that  he  did  trust  in  Christ,  Christ  alone,  for 
salvation,"  and  had  "  an  assurance  given 
him  that  Christ  had  taken  away  his  sin,  and 
saved  him  from  the  law  of  sin  and  death." 
This  day,  May  the  24th,  1738,  is  a  great 
landmark  in  the  history  of  the  Wesleyan 
movement. 

Until  Wesley  learned  the  doctrine  of 
"  salvation  by  grace,  through  faith,  not  of 
ourselves,"  but  as  the  "  gift  of  God,"  he  had 

13 


194  The  Living  Wesley. 

been  a  ritualist ;  and  it  had  been  his  doc- 
trine that  salvation  was  secured  by  moral 
and  ritual  conformity  to  what  the  Church 
requires.  From  this  time  forth  he  taught 
that  salvation  was  not  by  works  or  rites, 
but  by  that  faith  of  the  new  creation,  that 
faith  in  "  Christ  and  him  crucified,"  which 
unites  the  soul  with  Christ  through  his 
Spirit,  which  introduces  the  soul  into  "new- 
ness of  life,"  so  that  the  believer  is  made  a 
child  and  heir  of  God  and  a  "  joint  heir 
with  Christ."  Faith  he  was  to  teach  here- 
after as  the  principle  and  inlet  of  the  Divine 
and  Christian  life  in  the  human  soul.  But 
this  change  entirely  revolutionized  the  char- 
acter and  tenor  of  his  ministry.  To  con- 
strain, by  the  authority  of  Christ  and  his 
Church — by  virtue,  very  mainly,  of  Church 
discipline  and  law — men  and  women  to  obey 
the  requirements  of  the  Church,  had  been 
his  vocation  heretofore ;  he  had  been  an 
ecclesiastical  magistrate,  a  disciplinary  offi- 
cer, a  moral  and  ritual  watchman,  in  the 
service  of  the  Church  ;  his  work  had  been 
to  carry  out   discipline  and    instruction   in 


Wesley's  Evangelical  Conversion.  195 

detail.  But  now  he  was  to  be  something: 
very  different.  It  was  to  be  his  business  to 
preach  salvation  through  Christ  Jesus  to  all 
men.  His  first  and  chief  work  now  was  to 
point  the  way  to  Him.  The  rest  would  fol- 
low for  those  who  repaired  to  him.  He  was 
not  to  be  a  priest,  observing,  enforcing,  car- 
rying out  a  ritual;  but  a  herald  who,  in  the 
spirit  and  language  of  the  Baptist,  was  to 
direct  sinners  away  from  himself,  from  the 
Church,  from  all  else  whatsoever,  to  Christ, 
as  "  the  Lamb  of  God,  which  taketh  away 
the  sin  of  the  world."  Faith  henceforth 
was  to  be  his  doctrine ;  he  was  to  teach 
that  men  are  saved  by  faith.  But  "  faith 
cometh  by  hearing,  and  hearing  by  the 
word  of  God."  From  this  hour,  accord- 
ingly, this  ritualistic  priest  and  ecclesiasti- 
cal martinet  was  to  be  transformed  into  a 
flaming  preacher,  in  all  its  branches  and 
rich  and  varied  experiences.  Hence  arose 
Wesleyan  Methodism  and  all  the  Method- 
ist Churches. 

In  his  famous  correspondence  with  Law, 
which  took  place  during  the  period   of  his 


196  The  Living  Wesley. 

intercourse  with  Bohler,  but  before  he  had 
attained  to  peace  through  believing,  and 
which  I  agree  with  Mr.  Tyerman  in  think- 
ing petulant  and  harsh,  although  I  do  not 
think  it  deserves  to  be  denounced  as  "  an 
intolerable  outrage,"  *  Wesley  has  expressed 
very  distinctly  what  he  at  the  time  regard- 
ed as  being  the  essential  defect  of  his  faith 
up  to  the  period  of  his  receiving  Border's 
instructions.     His  faith  up  to  this  time  he 

*  Miss  Wedgwood's  observations  on  this  correspondence 
are  acute,  and  contain  a  measure  of  truth,  although  here  as 
elsewhere  she  has  misconceived  Wesley's  character  as  re- 
gards the  point  of  insight  and  sympathy  with  particular 
minds.  Wesley  wrote  as  he  did  to  Law  because  he  believed 
himself  to  be  bound  both  to  God  and  man,  and  especially  to 
Mr.  Law,  to  do  his  utmost  to  point  out  to  him,  in  full  light, 
what  he  regarded  as  his  most  mischievous  doctrinal  defect 
and  error.  Wesley's  manner  of  doing  this  was  a  remnant  of 
his  old  hierarchical  character  and  temper  ;  a  derivative  from 
the  views  which  he  had  held  so  long,  and  the  influences  un- 
der which  his  character  for  so  many  years  had  been  molded. 
It  was  not  to  be  expected  that  the  conscientious  arrogance 
and  dogmatism  which  such  opinions  as  he  had  held  can- 
not fail  always  to  produce,  should  all  at  once  pass  away,  even 
when  he  had  begun  to  look  away  from  his  Church  to  his 
Saviour.  If  Wesley  had  not  embraced  the  doctrines  of  grace 
and  salvation  by  faith,  he  must  have  retained,  as  his  official 
temper,  such  arrogant  austerity  as  he  had  already  shown  in 
Georgia,  notwithstanding  the  brightness  and  candor  of  his 
natural  disposition. 


Wesley's  Evangelical  Conversion.  197 

describes  as  a  "  speculative  notional  shadow, 
which  lives  in  the  head,  not  in  the  heart." 
He  has  also  described  very  pointedly  the 
sort  of  doctrine  which,  in  contrast  to  his 
own  conceptions  heretofore,  Bohler  had 
insisted  upon.  "  This  faith,  indeed,"  that 
"  holy  man  "  had  told  him,  "  is  the  free  gift 
of  God.  But  seek,  and  thou  shalt  find. 
Strip  thyself  naked  of  thine  own  works, 
and  fly  to  him.  'For  whosoever  cometh 
to  him,  he  will  in  no  wise  cast  out.'" 
And  his  complaint  against  his  former  in- 
structor, Law,  is :  "  Why  did  I  scarce  ever 
hear  you  name  the  name  of  Christ  ?  Never, 
so  as  to  ground  any  thing  upon  faith  in  his 
blood." 

Miss  Wedgwood  has  firmly  grasped  the 
significance  of  Wesley's  experience  at  this 
critical  period  of  his  history.  She  reads 
aright  the  meaning,  at  least  in  general,  of 
his  experience  during  the  voyage  home, 
and  she  sees  very  distinctly  the  nature  of 
the  revolution  in  his  views  and  aims  which 
was  effected  by  his  conversion.  "  Wes- 
ley's homeward  voyage  in    1738,"  she  says, 


198  The   Living  Wesley. 

"  marks  the  conclusion  of  his  High-church 
period.  He  abated  nothing  of  his  attach- 
ment to  the  ordinances  of  the  Church  either 
then  or  to  the  last  days  of  his  life,  and  he 
did  not  so  soon  reach  that  degree  of  inde- 
pendence of  her  hierarchy  and  some  of  her 
rules  which  marks  his  furthest  point  of  di- 
vergence ;  but  his  Journals  during  this  voy- 
age chronicle  for  us  that  deep  dissatisfaction 
which  is  felt  whenever  an  earnest  nature 
wakes  up  to  the  incompleteness  of  a  tradi- 
tional religion  ;  and  his  after  life,  compared 
with  his  two  years  in  Georgia,  makes  it  evi- 
dent that  he  passed  at  this  time  into  a  new 
spiritual  region.  His  Journals  are  marked 
by  a  depression  which  we  never  meet  with 
again."*  Having  referred,  a  few  pages 
further  on,  to  the  religious  societies  of 
which  Dr.  Woodward  has  left  us  an  account, 
and  which  had  preceded  Methodism,  Miss 
Wedgwood  makes  the  following  discriminat- 
ing and  acute  observations  :  "  The  religious 
societies  of  the  seventeenth  century  were 
in   organization  a  feebler  and  more  liberal 

*  "  John  Wesley,"  p.  140. 


Wesley's  Evangelical  Conversion.  199 

Methodism*  It  was,  however,  only  in  or- 
ganization that  the  two  things  were  alike. 
The  spirit  of  the  older  societies  was  not 
only  unlike  Methodism,  but  it  was  the  very 
spirit  from  which  Methodism  was  a  reaction. 
They  were  distinctively  Church  bodies,  and 
they  belonged  characteristically  to  the 
Church  at  that  time  ;  they  embodied  the 
principles  of  that  party  whose  watchwords 
were  virtue  and  vice,  and  who  were  not 
afraid  to  speak  of  the  support  of  a  good 
conscience,  and  of  the  everlasting  rewards 
which  '  were  worthy  of  all  the  care  and  toil 
which  were  to  be  spent  in  the  pursuit  of 
them.'  (Dr.  Woodward?)  The  reader  will 
at  once  appreciate  the  chasm  which  phrases 
like  these  indicate  between  the  speakers 
and  the  school  of  Wesley.  .  .  .  Adherence  to 
the  Church  was  no  longer  the  first  condi- 
tion of  membership  in  any  society  with 
which  he  was  in  sympathy.  The  birthday 
of  a  Christian  was  already  shifted  from  his 

*By  "more  liberal "  Miss  Wedgwood  means  "  less  strict." 
But  the  observations  which  follow  show  that  being  Church 
societies,  these  less  strict  societies  were  ecclesiastically  more 
exclusive,  and  therefore  less  "liberal." 


200  The  Living  Wesley. 

baptism  to  his  conversion,  and  in  that  change 
the  partition  line  of  two  great  systems  is 
crossed?  * 

The  last  sentence  quoted  admirably  ex- 
presses the  master-truth  which  explains  the 
whole  sequel  of  Wesley's  life — which  fur- 
nishes the  key  to  the  whole  development  of 
Wesleyan  Methodism.  Mr.  Tyerman  has 
given  a  full  and  excellent  account  of  Wes- 
ley's religious  experience  during  the  whole 
of  this  critical  period  in  his  history ;  with 
the  minuteness  characteristic  of  a  student 
and  preacher  of  evangelical  theology,  he  has 
exhibited  on  the  surface  of  his  pages  those 
instructive  fluctuations  in  Wesley's  own 
views  and  experience,  during  the  early 
months  after  his  conversion,  which  Wesley 
himself  sets  forth  fully  in  his  Journals,  and 
which  show  that  Wesley's  views  respecting 
the  nature  of  the  Spirit's  witness,  and  the 
character  and  extent  of  regeneration,  were, 
as  was  to  be  expected,  not  fully  denned  or 
finally  settled  until  some  time  after  his  con- 
version ;  and  in  particular,  as  Mr.  Tyerman 

*  "John  Wesley,"  p.  157. 


Wesley's  Evangelical  Conversion.  201 

intimates,  that  they  had  been  not  a  little 
disturbed  and  perplexed  by  what  he  had 
heard  among  the  Moravians  during  his 
visit  to  them  in  Germany  almost  immedi- 
ately after  he  had  "  found  peace."  But  Mr. 
Tyerman  fails  to  show  the  critical  nature 
of  the  change  which  Wesley  underwent 
through  the  teaching  and  instrumentality 
of  Bohler.  It  is  possible  to  maintain,  that 
in  a  certain  and  a  true  sense  of  the  word 
Wesley  had  been  "  converted  " — that  is,  thor- 
oughly and  graciously  awakened  into  sin- 
cere repentance — before  he  knew  Bohler ; 
but,  nevertheless,  what  marked  and  made 
the  absolute  revolution  in  his  mind  and 
character,  with  all  his  prospects  and  mo- 
tives, was  his  full  acceptance  of  that  doc- 
trine of  evangelical  faith  which  the  Mora- 
vian was  the  means  of  making  known  to  his 
spiritual  apprehension,  and  his  embrace  by 
that  faith  of  the  Saviour  as  his  own  in  ever- 
present  virtue  and  plenitude.  By  making 
the  most  of  Wesley's  antecedent  prepara- 
tion of  heart,  and  by  laying  too  much  stress 
on  those  fluctuations  of  spirit  and  of  view, 


202  The   Living  Wesley. 

and  of  those    self-depreciatory   statements 
respecting   his   own  experience    soon   after 
his    conversion,   the    like    of  which   are   so 
commonly  found  in  the  experience  of  hum- 
ble and  conscientious  young  converts,  who, 
as  yet,  are  necessarily  wanting  in  experience 
of    spiritual    difficulties,    perplexities,    and 
temptations,  and  whose  natural  but  unwar- 
ranted expectations  of  settled  joy  and  tran- 
quillity have  been  painfully  disappointed,  it 
is  possible  to  diminish  the  proportions  and 
to  obscure  the  relations  of  the  great  cardi- 
nal change  in  Wesley's  spiritual  character  on 
which  we  have  been  dwelling.     Miss  Wedg- 
wood, however,  clearly  sees  the  importance 
and  the  critical  nature  of  that  change,  and 
has  admirably  stated  it  in  the  passage  we 
have    quoted.     Wesley  had  embraced    the 
cardinal    doctrine    of  "  salvation    by  faith." 
Now,  to  quote  again  the  classical  text  which 
we  quoted  a  short  while  ago,  "  faith  cometh 
by  hearing,  and    hearing   by  the   word    of 
God."     In  other  words,  the  preaching  of  the 
truth  of  God,  and  not  the  administration  of 
the    sacraments    as    such,  becomes    to   the 


Wesley's  Evangelical  Conversion.  203 

evangelical  believer  the  great  means  of 
spreading  salvation — of  conveying  life  to 
those  who  are  in  a  state  of  spiritual  death. 
Christians  are  to  be  "sanctified"  by  "  the 
truth,"  even  by  the  "  word  of  God ;"  to  be 
"  born  again,  not  of  corruptible  seed,  but  of 
incorruptible,  by  the  word  of  God,  which 
liveth  and  abideth  forever."  It  is  not  the 
sacraments,  as  rites  duly  administered,  but 
it  is  the  truth  in  the  sacraments  spiritually 
apprehended  and  embraced,  which  fills  them 
with  blessing  to  the  believer.  The  "  expul- 
sive power,"  accordingly,  of  the  "  new  prin- 
ciple "  which  Wesley  had  embraced,  could 
not  but  before  long  cast  out  the  sacrament- 
al ritualism  which  had  held  him  in  bondage. 
He  did  not,  of  course,  cast  all  his  "grave- 
clothes  "  off  at  once  ;  but  rapidly,  though 
gradually,  he  did  cast  them  away.  Mean- 
time he  preached  his  new  doctrine  with  new 
and  startling  power ;  and  so  entered  upon 
that  grand  course  of  preaching  which  was 
to  lay  the  foundation  for  all  his  organiza- 
tion— for  his  whole  fellowship  and  "con- 
nection."    Wesley  the  Ritualist  was  trans- 


204  The  Living  Wesley. 

formed  into  Wesley  the  Preacher.  Wes- 
leyan  Methodism  is  derived,  not  from 
Wesley  the  Ritualist,  but  from  Wesley  the 
Preacher. 

Let  me  here  be  permitted  to  quote  some 
sentences  which  have  already  been  pub- 
lished. "  With  Wesley's  ritualism  his  High- 
churchmanship  could  not  but  also  wither 
away.  A  number  of  old  and  long  custom- 
ary prejudices  and  predilections — habits  of 
thought  and  feeling  which  had  become  a 
second  nature — still  clave  to  him  for  awhile  ; 
but  these  dropped  off  one  by  one,  until 
scarcely  a  vestige  of  them  was  left.  All  the 
irregularities  of  the  Methodist  leader  ;  his 
renunciation  of  Church-bigotry  and  exclu- 
siveness ;  his  partial,  but  progressive  and 
fundamental,  separation  from  the  Church 
which  imposed  shackles  on  his  evangelical 
activities,  and  frowned  upon  his  converts, 
and  the  ultimate  separation,  in  due  se- 
quence, of  the  Church  he  had  founded  from 
the  Church  in  which  he  was  nurtured  :  all 
these  results  were  involved  in  this  change. 
Newman    renounced   justification  by  faith, 


Wesley's  Evangelical  Conversion.  205 

and  clung  to  apostolic  succession,  therefore 
he  went  to  Rome;  Wesley  embraced  justi- 
fication by  faith,  and  renounced  apostolic 
succession,  therefore  his  people  are  a  sep- 
arate people  from  the  Church  of  England."* 

*  See  "  London  Quarterly  Review,"  vol.  xxx,  (July,  1868,) 
pp.  293-4.  Also,  Dr.  Rigg's  "  Wesley  and  the  Church  of 
England."     Second  Edition,  p.  39. 


2o6  The  Living  Wesley. 


CHAPTER  III. 

WESLEY    THE    PREACHER. 

ISwjTE  must  now  turn  from  Wesley  the 
^B  Ritualist  to  Wesley  the  Preacher. 
In  this  character  he  is,  perhaps,  quite  as  lit- 
tle known,  as  little  really  understood  at  the 
present  day,  as  in  his  character  as  a  thinker, 
to  which  we  shall  soon  have  to  advert.  His 
character  as  an  organizer  has  usurped  pub- 
lic attention  to  such  an  extent  as  quite  to 
obscure  his  character  as  a  preacher.  And 
yet,  as  I  have  intimated,  the  foundation  of 
all  his  power  and  success  as  an  organizer 
was  laid  in  his  power  and  success  as  a 
preacher.  He  was,  in  simple  truth,  the 
most  awakening  and  spiritually  penetrative 
and  powerful  preacher  of  his  age.  White- 
field  was  more  dramatic,  but  less  intense  ; 
more  pictorial,  but  less  close  and  forcible  ; 
less  incisive  and  conclusive.  In  Wesley's 
calmer  discourses,  lucid  and  engaging  expo- 


Wesley  the  P readier.  207 

sition  laid  the  basis  for  close  and  searching 
application.  In  his  more  intense  utter- 
ances, logic  and  passion  were  fused  into  a 
white  heat  of  mingled  argument,  denuncia- 
tion,  and  appeal,  often  of  a  most  personal 
searchingness,  often  overwhelming  in  its  ve- 
hement home-thrusts.  Some  idea  may  be 
gained  as  to  the  character  of  his  most  ear- 
nest preaching  from  his  "  Appeals  to  Men 
of  Reason  and  Religion,"  especially  the  lat- 
ter portions  of  the  first  of  these,  and  from 
his  celebrated  "  Sermon  on  Free  Grace." 

I  am,  of  course,  aware  that  the  intimation 
I  have  now  given  of  the  character  of  Wes- 
ley's preaching  will  surprise  some,  even  of 
my  well-informed  readers,  and  that  it  is  not 
in  accordance  with  the  popular  conception 
of  his  preaching.  It  is  many  years  since 
the  late  beloved  James  Hamilton,  in  an  ar- 
ticle in  the  "  North  British  Review,"  gave 
pictorial  expression,  in  his  own  vivid  way, 
to  the  mistaken  idea  which  has  grown  up 
in  some  quarters  respecting  Wesley  as  a 
preacher.  He  sketched  him  as,  "  after  his 
morning  sermon  at  the  Foundry,  mounting 


208  The  Living  Wesley. 

his  pony,  and  trotting,  and  chatting,  and 
gathering  simples,  till  he  reached  some 
country  hamlet,  where  he  would  bait  his 
charger,  and  talk  through  a  little  sermon 
with  the  villagers,  and  remount  his  pony 
and  trot  away  again."  A  more  unfounded 
and  misleading  specimen  of  fancy-painting 
than  this  it  would  be  impossible  to  imagine  ; 
and  one  can  only  wonder  where  good  James 
Hamilton  picked  up  the  ideas  or  the  ficti- 
tious information  which  he  deliberately  put 
into  this  written  form.  He  was  altogether 
at  fault  in  his  picture.  As  Wesley  was,  dur- 
ing the  greater  part  of  his  life,  simply  the 
most  assiduous  horseman,  and  one  of  the 
most  spirited  of  riders,  in  the  kingdom,  rid- 
ing ordinarily  sixty  miles  (let  it  be  remem- 
bered what  the  roads  were  in  the  middle  of 
the  last  century)  day  by  day,  besides  preach- 
ing twice  or  thrice,  and  not  seldom  riding 
eighty  or  ninety  miles  in  the  day;  so,  for 
many  years,  Wesley  was  frequently  a  long 
preacher — was  often  one  of  the  longest 
preachers  of  whom  we  have  ever  read  or 
heard — and  never  stinted   himself  of  time 


Wesley  the  Preacher.  209 

when  the  feeling  of  the  congregation  seemed 
to  invite  him  to  enlarge,  and  when  oppor- 
tunity favored.  Oi  course,  however,  he 
preached  at  all  times  many  more  short  ser- 
mons than  long  ones,  because  he  preached 
commonly  three  times  every  wTeek  day,  and 
four  or  five  times  on  the  Sunday,  and  because 
his  earlier  sermons  on  the  Sunday  needed 
to  be  over  in  time  for  his  hearers  to  attend 
Church-service.  But  when  he  preached 
after  Church  hours,  whether  in  the  afternoon 
or  the  later  evening,  and  on  special  occa- 
sions even  on  the  week  evening,  he  was,  as  I 
have  said,  for  many  years  often  a  very  long 
preacher.  Let  me  give  some  instances  of 
this,  only  premising  that  all  the  special 
instances  of  protracted  preaching  which  I 
am  about  to  cite  occurred  after  Wesley 
had  taken  to  field-preaching.  He  had  been 
an  earnest,  and  not  unfrequently  a  long 
preacher  before  ;  but  it  was  not  until  he 
began  to  address  crowds  of  thousands  in 
the  open  air  that  his  larger  and  grander 
powers  as  a  preacher  were  called  forth. 
About  sixteen  or  seventeen  months  after 

14 


2io  The   Living  Wesley. 

his  conversion,  Wesley  writes  in  his  Journal 
as  follows,  under  date  October  7,  1739, 
(Sunday)  : — 

"  Between  five  and  six  I  called  upon  all 
who  were  present  (about  three  thousand)  at 
Stanley,  near  Stroud,  on  a  little  green,  near 
the  town,  to  accept  of  Christ  as  their  only 
'wisdom,  righteousness,  sanctification,  and 
redemption/  I  was  strengthened  to  speak 
as  I  never  did  before,  and  continued  speak- 
ing near  two  hours ;  the  darkness  of  the 
night  and  a  little  lightning  not  lessening  the 
number,  but  increasing  the  seriousness,  of 
the  hearers." 

Wesley  had  already,  before  this  service, 
preached  three  times  on  that  day ;  and  he 
preached  yet  once  after  it,  "  concluding  the 
day"  by  "expounding  part  of  our  Lords 
Sermon  on  the  Mount  to  a  small,  serious 
company  at  Ebley."  Five  services,  there- 
fore, that  day,  and  among  them  one  in 
which  his  sermon  alone  was  nearly  two 
hours  lone ! 

On  Friday,  the  19th  of  the  same  month, 
Wesley    preached    at     Newport,    in    Mon- 


Wesley  the  Preaelier.  2 1 1 

mouthshire,  in  the  morning,  and  coming  to 
Cardiff  about  the  middle  of  the  day  he 
preached  in  the  Shire  Hall  twice — in  the 
afternoon  at  four  and  again  at  six  in  the 
evening.  He  had  a  large  congregation — 
"almost  the  whole  town" — and  preaching 
from  the  six  last  beatitudes,  he  says,  "  My 
heart  was  so  enlarged  I  knew  not  how  to 
give  over,  so  that  we  continued  three  hours." 
On  Sunday,  June  13,  1742,  he  preached  in 
Epworth  churchyard — his  own  and  his  fa- 
ther's Epworth — standing  on  his  father's 
tomb,  and  continued  the  service  "  for  near 
three  hours."  This  was  his  fourth  service 
that  day.  On  Wednesday,  May  24th,  1745, 
at  Bristol,  being  the  anniversary  of  his  con- 
version, he  "  was  constrained  to  continue  his 
discourse  near  an  hour  longer  than  usual, 
God  pouring  out  such  a  blessing  that  he 
knew  not  how  to  leave  off."  On  Whitsun- 
day, the  14th  of  May,  1749,  at  Limerick,  he 
began  to  preach  at  five,  and,  there  being 
no  liturgy  and  no  lesson,  but  only  the  sim- 
plest service,  three  short  singings,  one  short 
prayer,  and  a  final  benediction,  besides  the 


212  The   Living  Wesley. 

sermon,  he  yet  kept  the  congregation  till 
near  seven,  "  hardly  knowing  how  the  time 
went."  At  Whitehaven,  on  a  Saturday 
evening  in  September,  1749,  he  preached 
from  six  to  eight — a  simple  week-night 
service — which  must  have  implied  a  sermon 
of  not  less  than  an  hour  and  a  quarter  long; 
and  at  eight  he  met  the  society.  These  in- 
stances may  suffice  to  show  how  Wesley  en- 
larged under  special  influences.  Even  when 
he  was  more  than  seventy  years  of  age, 
he  sometimes,  on  a  week-night  evening, 
was  so  drawn  out  as  to  "  preach  a  full 
hour" — as  for  instance,  in  the  market- 
place of  Caermarthen  on  the  21st  of 
August,  1777. 

In  the  article  to  which  I  have  referred  it 
was  said,  that  while  Wesley  could  "  talk 
through  a  little  sermon  with  the  villagers,"  he 
"seldom  coped  with  the  multitude."  In  the 
"  Wesleyan  Methodist  Magazine "  for  De- 
cember, 1847,  wiH  be  found  a  paper  from 
the  pen  of  the  venerable  Thomas  Jackson, 
who  died  recently,  in  the  ninetieth  year  of 
his  age,  which  examines  and  reproves  the 


Wesley  the  Preacher.  213 

errors   of  that    article.     Mr.    Jackson    thus 
deals  with  the  point  now  under  notice: — 

"That  he  preached  to  'villagers,'  so  as  to 
be  understood  by  them,  as  his  blessed  Lord 
had  done,  will  not  be  denied ;  but  that  he 
'seldom  coped  with  the  multitude,'  is  notori- 
ously at  variance  with  fact.  No  man  was 
accustomed  to  address  larger  multitudes,  or 
with  greater  success.  At  Moorfields,  Ken- 
nington  Common,  Kingswood,  Bristol,  New- 
castle, in  Cornwall,  Staffordshire,  and  York- 
shire, immense  multitudes  of  people  were 
accustomed  to  congregate  around  him 
through  a  long  series  of  years,  and  that 
with  undiminished  interest ;  and  it  may  be 
fairly  questioned,  whether  any  minister  in 
modern  ages  has  been  instrumental  in  ef- 
fecting a  greater  number  of  conversions. 
He  possessed  all  the  essential  requisites  of 
a  great  preacher;  and  in  nothing  was  he 
inferior  to  his  eminent  friend  and  contem- 
porary, except  in  voice  and  manner.  In 
respect  of  matter,  language,  and  arrange- 
ment, his  sermons  were  vastly  superior  to 
those    of   Mr.   Whitefield.     Those  persons 


214  The   Living  Wesley. 

who  judge  of  Mr.  Wesley's  ministry  from 
the  sermons  which  he  preached  and  pub- 
lished in  the  decline  of  life,  greatly  mistake 
his  real  character.  Till  he  was  enfeebled 
by  age,  his  discourses  were  not  at  all  re- 
markable for  their  brevity.  They  were 
often  extended  to  a  considerable  length,  as 
we  learn  from  his  Journal;  and  yet,  accord- 
ing to  his  oft-repeated  statements,  he  did 
not  know  how  to  leave  off  and  dismiss  the 
people,  for  his  mind  was  full  of  evangelical 
matter,  and  his  heart  was  richly  charged 
with  heavenly  zeal.  In  a  sense  higher  than 
ever  entered  into  the  thoughts  of  Archime- 
des, as  he  himself  states,  he  was  often  ready 
to  exclaim,  when  addressing  vast  multitudes 
in  his  Master's  name,  '  Give  me  the  where 
to  stand  and  I  will  move  the  world  !" 

Such  is  the  testimony  of  Thomas  Jack- 
son, the  author  of  the  full  and  admirable 
"  Life  of  Charles  Wesley,"  and  the  very 
accurate  editor  of  Wesley's  voluminous 
Works;  who  was  himself  born  before  the 
death  of  Wesley  ;  who  made  all  that  related 
to  him  his  life-study ;  who  knew  well  some 


Wesley  the  Preacher.  215 

of  the  men  who  had  known  Wesley  best  ; 
and  who  should  himself  have  accomplished 
for  the  life  of  John  Wesley  what  he  has  so  ex- 
cellently done  as  the  biographer  of  Charles. 
The  case  being  as  Mr.  Jackson  has  stated 
it,  and  as  the  extracts  from  the  Journal, 
which  we  have  given,  prove  it  to  have  been, 
it  is  proper  to  explain  how  the  erroneous 
ideas  which  have  been  current  as  to  the 
character  of  his  preaching  have  originated. 
Three  causes  may  be  assigned  to  account 
for  them.  One  is  hinted  at  by  Mr.  Jackson 
in  the  extract  we  have  given.  Mr.  Wesley's 
was  a  very  long  life.  Those  of  his  people 
wrho  had  known  him  in  his  prime  of  strength 
and  energy  had  died  before  himself.  The 
traditions  as  to  his  preaching,  which  have 
been  current  during  the  last  half  century, 
have  been  mostly  derived  from  those  who 
had  only  heard  him  in  his  extreme  old  age, 
and,  in  many  instances,  on  his  hasty  visits 
from  place  to  place,  when  he  would  preach 
at  seven  o'clock  on  the  week-night  evening, 
or  at  five  o'clock  in  the  morning.  But  an- 
other, and,  perhaps,  more   influential   cause 


2i6  The   Living  Wesley. 

has  been,  that  an  inference  as  to  the  length 
and  style  of  his  spoken  sermons  has  been 
erroneously  drawn  from  his  published  ser- 
mons. How  unwarranted  any  such  infer- 
ence must  be,  may  be  shown  by  a  remark 
of  his  elder  brother  Samuel's,  made  at 
the  very  beginning  of  Wesley's  preaching 
career,  and  before  he  had  begun  field- 
preaching.  In  a  letter  addressed  to  Charles 
Wesley,  but  which  refers  to  both  the 
brothers,  Samuel  says,  under  date  Decem- 
ber ist,  1738:  "There  is  a  most  monstrous 
appearance  of  dishonesty  among  you  ; 
your  sermons  are  generally  three  quarters 
of  an  hour  or  an  hour  long  in  the  pulpit, 
but  when  printed  are  short  snips ;  rather 
notes  than  sermons."*  If  this  was  the  case 
so  soon  after  the  brothers  had  broken  away 
from  the  bondage  of  sermon-reading  in  the 
pulpit,  it  is  certain  that,  in  after  years,  ex- 
cept in  special  cases — such  as  a  sermon  to  be 
preached  before  the  University — the  writ- 
ten sermon,  which  was  ordinarily  a  compo- 
sition having  a  definite    purpose   of  theo- 

*  Jackson's  "Life  of  Charles  Wesley,"  p.  151. 


Wesley  the  Preacher.  217 

logical  statement  and  definition,  must  be 
regarded  as  altogether  different  in  character 
from  the  preached  sermon,  delivered  extem- 
pore, often  after  little  or  no  written  prepara- 
tion. Wesley  the  preacher  was  tethered  by 
no  lines  of  written  preparation  and  verbal 
recollection  ;  he  spoke  with  extraordinary 
power  of  utterance  out  of  the  fullness  of  his 
heart.  Still  another  cause  of  the  error  we 
have  been  exposing  must  probably  be  found 
in  the  urgency  with  which  Wesley,  in  vari- 
ous places,  enjoins  on  his  preachers,  as  a 
rule,  to  preach  short,  and  the  emphatic  way 
in  which  he  insists  to  them  on  the  evils  of 
long  preaching.  But  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  the  great  majority  of  Wesley's 
preachers  were  men  whose  stock  of  knowl- 
edge was  very  small,  and  who  had  received 
no  intellectual  training  whatever.  They 
resembled  the  plainest  and  most  fervid  of 
the  Methodist  local  preachers  or  exhorters 
of  to-day.  The  same  rule  could  not  be  appli- 
cable to  him  as  to  them.  But,  indeed,  the 
great  Methodist  preachers  of  Wesley's  day 
— his  most  powerful  lay-helpers — were,  as  a 


2i8  The  Living  Wesley. 

matter  of  fact,  none  of  them  short  preachers, 
while  most  of  them  were  often,  if  not  usual- 
ly, very  long  preachers.  Such  were  Walsh, 
and  Bradburn,  and  Benson,  and  Clarke. 

The  fact,  at  any  rate,  is  as  I  have  stated 
it,  so  far  as  respects  the  preaching  of  Wes- 
ley ;  and  although  I  have  carefully  abstained 
hitherto,  and  must  still  abstain,  from  being 
entangled  in  this  study  with  the  thread  of 
Charles  Wesley's  life,  closely  associated  as 
he  was  wTith  his  brother,  yet,  I  may  add  in 
passing,  that  for  not  a  few  years  Charles 
Wesley  was  as  long  and  often  as  powerful 
a  preacher,  even  as  he  was  as  hard-riding 
and  hard-working  an  itinerant  evangelist,  as 
his  brother  John. 

In  showing  that  Wesley,  instead  of  being 
a  talker  of  neat  little  sermons,  was,  in  his 
prime  of  life,  frequently  a  long  preacher, 
and  sometimes  one  of  the  longest  preachers 
of  whom  we  have  any  knowledge,  I  have 
not  only  shown  how  mistaken  has  been  the 
popular  tradition  respecting  his  special 
characteristics  as  a  preacher,  but  I  have  also 
proved  that  there  must  have  been  a  remark- 


Wesley  the  Preacher.  219 

able  charm  about  his  preaching.  None  but 
a  very  eloquent  speaker  could  have  held 
thousands  of  people  intently  listening  to 
him  for  two  or  three  hours  together  in  the 
open  air.  I  have  to  add,  as  I  have  already 
intimated,  that  he  was  a  singularly  powerful 
preacher.  Southey  has  given  conclusive 
evidence  as  to  this  point,  in  the  interesting 
chapter  in  the  first  volume  of  his  biography 
of  Wesley,  entitled,  "Scenes  of  Itinerancy." 
No  one,  indeed,  has  done  such  justice  as 
Southey  to  Wesley's  gifts  as  a  preacher. 
Not  only  in  the  "  Life  of  Wesley,"  but  in 
14  The  Doctor,"  and  in  his  "  Commonplace 
Book,"  he  has  given  evidence  of  the  careful 
study  and  the  full  appreciation  with  which 
he  has  realized  the  preaching  powers  of 
Wesley.  The  able  and  eloquent  American 
historian,  Stevens,  does  not  appear  to  have 
been  able  to  understand  the  secret  of  Wes- 
ley's special  power,  but  he  gives  some  strik- 
ing instances  to  show  how  great  that  power 
was.  "In  the  midst  of  a  mob,  '  I  called,' 
Wesley  writes,  '  for  a  chair  ;  the  winds  were 
hushed,  and  all  was  calm  and  still;  my  heart 


220  The   Living  Wesley. 

was  filled  with  love,  my  eyes  with  tears,  and 
my  mouth  with  arguments.  They  were 
amazed ;  they  were  ashamed ;  they  were 
melted  down ;  they  devoured  every  word.' 
That,"  says  Dr.  Stevens,  "  must  have  been 
genuine  eloquence."  *  Doubtless  it  was,  and 
the  very  words — the  vivid,  affecting  style 
of  the  description  here  quoted  from  Wes- 
himself— may  serve  to  intimate  what  was 
part  of  his  special  power  as  a  speaker. 

Like  many  terse,  nervous  writers,  Wes- 
ley was  not  only  a  nervous  but  a  copious 
speaker.  His  words  flowed  in  a  direct, 
steady,  powerful,  sometimes  a  rapid  stream, 
and  every  word  told,  because  every  word 
bore  its  proper  meaning.  With  all  the  full- 
ness of  utterance,  the  genuine  eloquence, 
there  was  no  tautology,  no  diffuseness  of 
style,  no  dilution.  Close,  logical,  high  verbal, 
adequate  philosophic  culture  had,  in  the 
case  of  Wesley,  laid  the  basis  of  clear,  vivid, 
direct,  and  copious  extempore  powers  of 
speech.  Culture  and  discipline,  such  as 
had  prepared  Cicero  for  his  oratorical  suc- 

*  Stevens's  "  History  of  Methodism,"  book  v,  chap.  xii. 


Wesley  the  Preacher.  221 

cesses,  helped  to  make  Wesley  the  powerful, 
persuasive,  at  times  the  thrilling  and  elec- 
trifying preacher  which  he  undoubtedly  was. 
What  a  picture  is  that  given  of  the  effects 
of  Wesley's  preaching  in  connection  with 
his  famous  visit  to  Epworth  !  For  eight 
evenings  in  succession,  in  that  splendid  ear- 
ly summer  season,  he  preached  to  vast 
crowds  from  his  father's  tomb,  and  his  last 
discourse  was  his  most  powerful  and  pro- 
longed, and  was  addressed  to  the  largest 
multitude.  The  circumstance,  however,  to 
which  we  refer  took  place  not  on  the  last 
day  of  his  preaching,  but  the  day  immedi- 
ately preceding,  (Saturday,  J  une  1 2th,  1 742.) 
"  While  I  was  speaking,  several  dropped 
down  as  dead  ;  and  among  the  rest  such  a 
cry  was  heard,  of  sinners  groaning  for  the 
righteousness  of  faith,  as  almost  drowned 
my  voice."  "  I  observed  a  gentleman  there 
who  was  remarkable  for  not  pretending  to 
be  of  any  religion  at  all.  I  was  informed 
he  had  not  been  at  public  worship  of  any 
kind  for  upward  of  thirty  years.  Seeing 
him  stand  as  motionless  as  a  statue,  I  asked 


222  The  Living  Wesley. 

him  abruptly,  'Sir,  are  you  a  sinner?'  He 
replied  with  a  deep  and  broken  voice,  '  Sin- 
ner enough;'  and  continued  staring  upward 
till  his  wife  and  a  servant  or  two,  who  were 
all  in  tears,  put  him  into  his  chaise  and  car- 
ried him  home."  The  stricken,  staring, 
statue-like  master,  the  weeping  wife  and  serv- 
ants— what  a  picture,  we  say,  have  we  here  ! 

That  Wesley's  preaching  was  attended 
by  more  powerful  and  penetrating  imme- 
diate results  than  that  of  any  of  his  famous 
contemporary  Methodist  preachers,  is  no- 
torious ;  but  it  has  been  thought  difficult  to 
understand  this.  He  was  not,  as  I  have 
said,  a  pictorial  or  dramatic  preacher,  like 
his  great  preaching  contemporary,  White- 
field  ;  but  whereas  Whitefield,  powerful 
preacher  as  he  was,  was  yet  more  popular 
than  powerful,  Wesley,  popular  preacher  as 
he  was,  was  yet  more  powerful  in  compari- 
son with  his  fellows  than  he  was  popular. 

There  is  really,  however,  no  special  mys- 
tery about  the  power  of  Wesley's  preach- 
ing. All  we  know  of  his  earlier  preaching, 
under  special  circumstances,  would  lead  to 


Wesley  tJie  P readier.  223 

the  conclusion  that  he  could  not  but  be  a 
singularly  powerful  preacher.  His  invaria- 
ble terseness  of  phrase  and  style  prevented 
him  from  ever  being  tedious.  His  full  and 
ready  flow  of  thoughts,  as  well  as  of  fit 
words,  carried  his  audience  with  him.  He 
was  most  pleasant  in  manner,  pellucid  in 
statement,  fresh  and  lively  throughout,  and 
so  frequent,  so  continuous,  we  might  almost 
say,  in  his  personal  application  of  what  he 
was  saying,  making  his  doctrine  to  tell  at 
every  point  throughout  his  discourse,  that 
he  never  allowed  the  attention  of  his  con- 
gregation to  slumber.  The  celebrated  Ken- 
nicott,  at  that  time  an  undergraduate  at 
Oxford,  heard  Wesley  preach  his  last  ser- 
mon before  his  University,  in  1744,  a  flam- 
ing, searching,  intrepidly  faithful  sermon. 
Apart  from  its  severity,  he  admired  the  ser- 
mon greatly,  and  was  evidently  very  much 
impressed  by  the  personality  of  the  preacher. 
"His  black  hair,"  he  says,  "  quite  smooth, 
and  parted  very  exactly,  added  to  a  pecul- 
iar composure  in  his  countenance,  showed 
him  to  be  an  uncommon  man."     He  speaks 


224  The  Living  Wesley. 

of  his  "  agreeable  emphasis "  in  reading. 
He  refers  with  approval  to  "many  just 
invectives "  in  his  sermon,  but  with  disap- 
proval to  "  the  zeal  and  unbounded  satire 
with  which  he  fired  his  address  when  he 
came  to  what  he  called  his  plain,  practical 
conclusion."  If"  his  censures  "  had  only  been 
"  moderated,"  and  certain  portions  omitted, 
Kennicott  says,  "  I  think  his  discourse,  as 
to  style  and  delivery,  would  have  been  un- 
commonly pleasing  to  others  as  well  as  to 
myself."  He  adds,  "  He  is  allowed  to  be  a 
man  of  great  parts."  * 

Cowper's  lines  on  Wesley  will  not  be  for- 
gotten while  we  are  on  the  subject  of  his 
preaching.  They  were  written  when  the  fire 
and  flame  of  Wesley's  early  manhood  were 
long  gone  by.     He  speaks  of  him  as  one — ■ 

"  Who,  when  occasion  justified  its  use, 
Had  wit  as  bright,  as  ready  to  produce. 
Could  fetch  from  records  of  an  earlier  age, 
Or  from  Philosophy's  enlightened  page, 
His  rich  materials,  and  regale  your  ear 
With  strains  it  was  a  privilege  to  hear. 
Yet,  above  all,  his  luxury  supreme, 
And  his  chief  glory  was  the  Gospel  theme  : 

*  Tyerman's  "  Wesley,"  vol.  i,  p.  449. 


Wesley  tke  Preacher.  22$ 

There  he  was  copious  as  old  Greece  or  Rome, 
His  happy  eloquence  seemed  there  at  home  ; 
Ambitious  not  to  shine  or  to  excel, 
But  to  treat  justly  what  he  loved  so  well." 

I  apprehend  that  the  last  four  lines  give 
a  most  true  and  happy  description  of  Wes- 
ley's ordinary  ministry,  while  Kennicott's 
description  enables  us  in  some  measure  to 
understand  the  fire  and  intensity  which 
characterized  his  preaching  on  special  occa- 
sions, and  in  the  prime  of  his  life. 

Dr.  Stevens  has  dwelt  on  the  authority 
with  which  Wesley  spoke,  the  calm  com- 
mand which  belonged  to  his  presence  and 
gave  weight  and  force  to  his  words.  No 
doubt  there  was  this  characteristic  always 
about  Wesley's  person  and  presence.  In 
the  former  part  of  this  study  I  have  quoted 
Gambold's  testimony  to  this  effect,  in  re- 
gard to  Wesley  in  his  early  Oxford  days. 
Calm,  serene,  methodical  as  Wesley  was, 
there  was  a  deep,  steadfast  fire  of  earnest 
purpose  about  him;  and,  notwithstanding 
the  smallness  of  his  stature,  there  was  an 
elevation  of  character  and  of  bearing  visible 
to  all  with  whom  he  had  intercourse,  which 

15 


226  The  Living  Wesley. 

gave  him  a  wonderful  power  of  command, 
however  quiet  were  his  words,  and  however 
placid  his  deportment.  But  the  extraordi- 
nary power  of  his  preaching,  while  it  owed 
something,  no  doubt,  to  this  tone  and  pres- 
ence of  calm,  unconscious  authority,  was 
due  mainly,  essentially,  to  the  searching  and 
importunate  closeness  and  fidelity  with 
which  he  dealt  with  the  consciences  of  his 
hearers,  and  the  passionate  vehemence  with 
which  he  urged  and  entreated  them  to  turn 
to  Christ  and  be  saved.  He  had  not  the 
"  gift  of  tears,"  as  Whitefield  had,  or  as  his 
brother  Charles  had,  whose  preaching  ap- 
pears to  have  been,  in  several  respects, 
intermediate  in  character  between  that  of 
his  brother  John  and  of  his  friend  White- 
field  ;  yet  Wesley  was  often  moved  to  tears 
as  he  pleaded  with  his  hearers,  and  oftener 
still  was  the  means  of  moving  multitudes 
that  heard  him  to  tears.  At  times,  however, 
his  onset  in  applying  his  subject  to  the 
lives,  the  cases,  the  consciences  of  his  hear- 
ers, was  too  intense,  too  direct,  too  eclectic- 
al,  to  be  answered  by  tears.      His   words 


Wesley  the  Preacher.  227 

went  with  a  sudden  and  startling  shock 
straight  home  into  the  very  core  of  the 
guilty  sinner's  consciousness  and  heart,  and 
cries,  shrieks,  sudden  fits,  cases  of  fainting 
and  insensibility,  men  and  women  "drop- 
ping down  as  dead,"  as  if  they  had  been 
physically  struck  by  a  blow  from  some  ter- 
rible engine,  by  a  stone  from  a  catapult,  or 
a  ball  from  a  cannon,  were  the  frequent  con- 
sequence. And  yet  it  was  not  that  Wesley 
used  stronger  words  than  other  preachers  ; 
not  that  he  used  high  word-coloring  or  ex- 
aggerated expressions ;  the  contrary  was 
the  case.  Rather,  it  was  that,  using  simpler 
and  fewer  words  than  others  to  express  the 
truth — going  straighter  to  his  purpose,  and 
with  less  word-foliage,  less  verbiage,  to 
shroud  or  overshadow  his  meaning — the 
real,  essential  truth  was  more  easily  and 
directly  seen  and  felt  by  the  hearer.  There 
was  less  of  human  art  or  device  ;  the  lan- 
guage was  simpler  and  more  transparent; 
and  so  the  truth  shone  more  clearly  and 
fully  through.  There  was  less  in  language 
of  what  "  man's  wisdom  teacheth ;"  less  of 


228  The  Living  Wesley. 

what  was  fanciful,  or  elaborate,  or  artificial, 
and  therefore  there  was  more  of  the  Spir- 
it's operation ;  more  of  "  the  demonstra- 
tion of  the  Spirit  and  of  power."  So  far  as 
any  mere  written  composition  can  give  an 
idea  of  how  Wesley  preached,  when  his  aim 
was  specially  to  convince  and  awaken,  per- 
haps his  last  sermon  before  the  University, 
to  which  we  have  lately  referred,  and  the 
wonderful  "  applications "  contained  in  his 
first  "Appeal  to  Men  of  Reason  and  Relig- 
ion," which  we  have  before  mentioned,  may 
help  us  to  such  an  idea ;  but  it  must  always 
be  remembered,  that  no  written  composi- 
tions can  really  approach  the  energy  and 
directness  with  which  Wesley  preached 
when  vast  crowds  hung  upon  his  lips,  to 
whom  he  was  declaring,  as  in  Epworth 
church-yard,  "the  whole  counsel  of  God." 

Of  the  clear,  strong,  intense  style  in  which 
Wesley  could,  if  he  felt  it  to  be  necessary, 
combine  doctrinal  argument  with  declama- 
tory invective  of  the  most  scathing  terrible- 
ness,  we  have  an  instance  in  his  famous  ser- 
mon on  "  Free  Grace."     But  for  the  publi- 


Wesley  the  Preacher.  229 

cation  of  that  sermon,  we  should  at  the 
present  time  have  had  no  conception  of 
what  his  powers  were  in  that  kind ;  and  it 
was  owing  only  to  very  special  circum- 
stances, and  much  against  his  liking,  that 
Wesley  felt  himself  constrained  to  publish 
that  sermon. 

It  is  well  known  that  Dr.  Johnson  had  a 
great  reverence  for  Wesley,  and  much  en- 
joyed his  society.  In  a  letter  to  Wesley 
himself,  he  compliments  him  as  "  Plato." 
Cowper,  also,  in  the  lines  we  have  quoted, 
refers  to  Wesley's  power  in  social  conversa- 
tion, of  bringing  forth  the  treasures  of 
ancient  philosophy.  Let  any  competent 
judge  read  the  plainly  written  but  elevated 
and  beautiful  sermon  on  "  The  Original  of 
the  Law,"  mentioned  some  pages  back,  and 
he  will  at  once  recognize  the  impress  of  a 
mind  which,  while  it  avoided  all  display  of 
learning,  was  deeply  imbued  with  the  train- 
ing and  results  of  philosophy — of  the  high- 
est and  best  philosophy,  whether  ancient  or 
modern — so  far  as  philosophy  had  advanced 
in  Wesley's  day. 


230  The   Living  Wesley. 

Wesley  had  been  an  excellent  preacher  of 
his  kind,  though  not  as  yet  evangelical,  be- 
fore he  went  to  America.  His  beautiful 
sermon  on  the  "  Circumcision  of  the  Heart," 
preached  before  the  University  of  Oxford 
in  1733,  is  one  of  several  sermons  included 
in  his  Works,  which  afford  decisive  evi- 
dence on  this  point.  His  style,  also — a  style 
which  the  best  judges,  such  as  Southey,  have 
agreed  in  greatly  admiring,  and  which,  in- 
deed, no  one  who  understands  and  loves 
clear,  pure,  pleasant  English  can  fail  to  ad- 
mire— seems  to  have  been  already  formed  at 
that  period,  although  its  full  power  was  not 
as  yet  developed  ;  it  was  awaiting  develop- 
ment under  the  inspiration  of  full  Christian 
tenderness  and  zeal.  But  it  was  not  until 
after  he  had  become  Border's  disciple,  that, 
for  reasons  we  have  already  stated,  preach- 
ing came  to  be  recognized  and  felt  by  him- 
self to  be  his  great  work,  or  that  the  char- 
acteristic power  of  his  preaching  was 
brought  out.  It  was  his  perception  of  the 
doctrine  of  salvation  by  faith  which  not  only 
transformed  him  thereafter  into  a  preacher, 


Wesley  the  Preacher.  23 1 

as  his  first  and  greatest  calling,  but  which  also 
breathed  a  new  soul  into  his  preaching. 
When  he  began  to  preach  this  doctrine,  his 
hearers  generally  felt  that  a  new  power  ac- 
companied his  preaching;  and,  at  the  same 
time,  the  clergy  and  the  orthodox  Pharisaic 
hearers  felt  that  a  dangerous,  startling,  rev- 
olutionary  doctrine  was  being  proclaimed. 
Wherever  he  preached  crowds  flowed,  in 
larger  and  larger  volume,  to  hear  him  ;  but, 
at  the  same  time,  church  after  church  was 
shut  against  him.  As  Gambold  wrote  in  a 
letter  to  Wesley,  it  is  the  doctrine  of  salva- 
tion by  faith,  which  seems  to  constitute  the 
special  offense  of  the  cross.  This,  at  any 
rate,  in  Wesley's  days,  was  the  one  doctrine 
which  clergymen  and  orthodox  church-goers 
would  not  endure.  Short  of  this  almost 
any  thing  might  be  preached,  but  on  no  ac- 
count this.  The  University  of  Oxford 
would  endure  the  high  doctrine  as  to  Chris- 
tian attainment  and  consecration  taught  in 
the  sermon  on  "The  Circumcision  of  the 
Heart/'  but  it  would  not  endure  the  doc- 
trine of  salvation  by  faith,  which,  ten  years 


232  The  Living  Wesley. 

later,  the    same   preacher  would    have    set 
forth   before    his   university.      The    reason 
would   seem    to   be   twofold :    the   evangel- 
ical   doctrine    of  salvation   by   faith    strips 
men  altogether  of  their  own  righteousness, 
laying  them   all  low  at  the   same  level  in 
presence  of  God's  holiness  and  of  Christ's 
atonement,  as  needing  Divine  pardon  and 
Divine    renewal ;    and    it    also   teaches   the 
"real  presence"  of  the  Divine  Spirit,  insists 
upon    the   present    supernatural    power    of 
God  to  inspire  repentance  and  faith,  and  to 
renew  the    soul,  the    present    supernatural 
power  of  Jesus  Christ  to   save  the  sinner. 
Such   a  doctrine   is  "  spiritual ;"  it  enforces 
the  living  power  and  presence  of  spiritual 
realities;  it  is  accordingly  "foolishness,"  and 
"  a  stumbling-block  "  to  the  "  natural  man." 
The    "  natural    man "    receiveth    not    these 
"  things  of  the   Spirit   of  God."     The  doc- 
trine   of   high    Christian   holiness    may   be 
regarded  as  but  another,  and  the  highest, 
form  of  moral  philosophy,  of  select  and  vir- 
tuous  Christian   culture.     The  doctrine  of 
salvation    by    faith,    through   grace,  is   one 


Wesley  the  Preacher.  233 

which  humbles  utterly  the  pride  of  the  hu- 
man understanding,  and  of  merely  human 
virtue.  It  was  when  Wesley  became  the 
preacher  of  this  doctrine  that  he  became  a 
truly  and  fully  Christian  preacher.  It  was 
not  a  new  doctrine ;  it  was  the  doctrine  of 
the  Apostles,  the  Reformers,  and  even  of 
the  Homilies  and  Formularies  of  the  Church 
of  England  itself;  but  in  a  sense-bound  and 
heartless  age  it  had  been  almost  utterly 
forgotten.  To  revive  it  by  the  ordinance 
of  preaching  became  henceforth  Wesley's 
great  life-work.  He  became,  above  all 
things,  himself  a  preacher,  and  he  founded 
a  preaching  institute  ;  with  preaching,  how- 
ever, always  associating  close  personal  and 
individual  fellowship. 

The  whole  of  Methodism  unfolded  from 
this  beginning.  To  promote  preaching  and 
fellowship  was  the  one  work ;  fellowship  itself 
meaning  chiefly  a  perpetual  individual  testi- 
mony of  Christian  believers  as  to  salvation 
by  grace,  through  faith.  Preaching  and  fel- 
lowship— this  was  all  from  first  to  last ;  true 
preaching,  and  true,  vital,  Christian  fellow- 


234  The  Living  Wesley. 

ship,  which  involved  opposition  to  untrue 
preaching,  and  to  fellowship  not  truly  and 
fully  Christian.  From  this  unfolded  all 
Wesley's  life  and  history.  His  union  for  a 
season  with  the  Moravians,  and  then  his 
separation  from  them,  when  their  teaching 
became  for  the  time  mixed  up  and  entan- 
gled with  demoralizing  error  ;  the  founda- 
tion of  his  own  society — that  of  "  the  people 
called  Methodists  ;"  his  separation  from  his 
brother  Whitefield  and  from  Calvinism ; 
his  field-preachings  ;  his  separate  meeting- 
houses and  separate  communions  ;  his  class- 
meetings,  and  band-meetings,  and  all  the 
discipline  of  his  society ;  his  Conference 
and  his  brotherhood  of  itinerant  Methodist 
preachers  ;  his  increasing  irregularities  as  a 
Churchman  ;  his  ordinations,  and  the  vir- 
tual though  not  formal  or  voluntary  separa- 
tion of  his  societies  from  the  Church  of 
England  ;  all  resulted  from  the  same  be- 
ginning—from his  embracing  "  the  doctrine 
of  salvation  by  faith  " — from  his  receiving  the 
instructions  of  Peter  Bohler,  the  Moravian 
minister. 


Wesley  the  Preacher.  235 

Into  these  matters  I  cannot  venture  in 
this  study.  They  demand  separate  treat- 
ment. The  personal  character  and  inner 
humanity  of  the  man  Wesley  is  my  theme. 
I  shall  now  turn  to  his  intellectual  charac- 
ter ;  a  subject  to  which,  so  far  as  I  know, 
no  writer  has  as  yet  done  justice,  and  which 
is  still  more  misconceived,  perhaps,  than  the 
style  and  character  of  his  preaching. 


236  The   Living  Wesley. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

WESLEY      AS      A      THINKER. 

g)ECAUSE  Wesley  was  eminently  a 
man  of  action,  it  seems  to  have  been 
inferred  by  some  writers  that  he  was  not  a 
man  of  contemplation :  he  is  admitted  to 
have  been  an  acute  logician,  but  he  is  repre- 
sented as  having  been  comparatively  want- 
ing in  the  capacity  of  philosophic  reflective- 
ness. I  have  no  wish  to  exaggerate  Wesley's 
philosophical  capacity  or  powers;  but  it  is 
an  entire  mistake  to  suppose  him  to  have 
been  at  all  wanting  either  in  the  taste  or 
the  capacity  for  philosophic  study  and  re- 
flection. His  intellectual  tastes  inclined 
him  very  strongly  to  the  study,  not  only  of 
languages,  but  of  philosophy  and  theology 
— of  philosophy,  perhaps,  hardly  less  than 
theology.  I  have  had  occasion  already  to 
furnish  one  instance  of  his  philosophic  taste 
and  capacity.  His  Journals  supply  abun- 
dant evidence  that,  in  the  midst  of  his  life 


Wesley  as  a   Thinker.  237 

of  incessant  activity  and  absorbing  care,  and 
devotional  intensity  of  feeling,  he  yet  kept 
up  his  interest  in  philosophic  studies.  He 
read  and  criticised  Locke  with  acute  intelli- 
gence. He  not  only  read,  but  explained  to 
his  preachers,  Bishop  Browne's  great  work 
on  "The  Procedure  of  the  Human  Under- 
standing," preferring  Browne  to  Locke.  In 
his  letters  to  Mr.  John  Smith,  he  says,  that 
"  in  the  midst  of  all  his  labors  he  had  abun- 
dantly more  temptation  to  be  a  saunterer 
inter  sylvas  academicas,  a  philosophical  slug- 
gard, than  an  itinerant  preacher."  His  re- 
flectiveness, indeed,  tended  even  to  skep- 
ticism. In  the  same  remarkable  letters,  he 
says  that  "  he  had  a  thousand  times  doubted 
of  the  divinity  of  the  Scriptures  after  the 
fullest  assurance  preceding." 

In  his  sermon  on  "The  Good  Steward," 
he  uses  the  striking  language  which  we  are 
about  to  quote: — 

"It  is  so  far  from  being  true  that  there 
is  no  knowledge  after  we  have  quitted  the 
body,  that  the  doubt  lies  on  the  other  side, 
whether  there   be  any  such   thing  as  real 


238  The  Living  Wesley. 

knowledge  till  then  ;  whether  it  be  not  a 
plain,  sober  truth,  not  a  mere  poetical  fic- 
tion, that 

"  'All  these  shadows,  which  for  thing's  we  take, 

Are  but  the  empty  dreams  which  in  death's  sleep  we  make,' 

only  excepting  those  things  which  God 
himself  had  been  pleased  to  reveal  to  man. 
I  will  speak  for  one.  After  having  sought 
the  truth  with  some  diligence  for  half  a 
century,  I  am,  at  this  day,  hardly  sure  of 
any  thing  but  what  I  learn  from  the  Bible. 
Nay,  I  positively  affirm  that  I  know  nothing 
else  so  certainly  that  I  would  dare  to  stake 
my  salvation  upon  it."  * 

It  was,  in  fact,  the  strength  of  the  con- 
templative element  in  Wesley  which  largely 
helped,  during  not  a  few  years  of  his  ear- 
lier life,  to  give  mysticism  so  considerable  a 
power  over  him.     He  loved  his  college,  and 

*  Here,  again,  we  are  struck  with  that  resemblance  and 
yet  contrast  between  Wesley  and  Newman  to  which  I  have 
referred  already.  Substitute  merely  "the  Church  "  for  "  the 
Bible,"  in  the  above  extract,  and  it  expresses  fully  the  views 
of  the  author  of  the  Apologia  pro  Vita  Sud  and  of  the 
"Grammar  of  Assent."  All  hinged  upon  Wesley's  accept- 
ing Scripture  teaching  instead  of  traditional  influence  and 
prescription. 


Wesley  as  a   T/iitiker.  239 

his  cloister,  and  his  "  academic  groves  ;"  he 
loved 

"  To  join  with  him  calm  Peace  and  Quiet, 
Spare  Fast,  that  oft  with  gods  doth  diet ; 
And  add  to  these  retired  Leisure, 
That  in  trim  gardens  takes  his  pleasure  ; 
But  first,  and  chiefest,  with  him  bring 
Him  that  yon  soars  on  golden  wing, 
The  cherub  Contemplation." 

He  seems  to  have  had  little  love  for  any 
philosophy  that  had  not  an  element  of  mys- 
ticism in  it ;  he  would 

"  Unsphere 
The  spirit  of  Plato,  to  unfold 
What  worlds  or  what  vast  regions  hold 
The  immortal  mind  that  hath  forsook 
Her  mansion  in  this  fleshly  nook." 

He  found  delight  in  Tauler's  philosophic 
and  mystical  theology,  and  in  Madame  de 
Bourignon's  poetry.  It  is  true,  he  was  of  a 
very  social  temper,  also,  when  he  could  find 
congenial  companions;  and  this  balanced 
his  recluseness.  It  is  also  true,  that  while 
his  mere  intellect  and  his  tastes  craved  for 
solitude  or  select  society,  his  moral  sen- 
sibilities and  his  conscience  continually 
prompted  him  to  go  abroad  and  minister 
to  bodily  and   spiritual  need  and   distress ; 


240  The   Living  Wesley. 

but  that  did  not  annul  the  other  side  of  his 
nature.  It  was,  doubtless,  the  strong  con- 
templative element  in  Wesley  which  formed 
so  close  a  link  between  himself  and  his 
friend  Gambold,  who  was  first  a  Methodist, 
then  a  Mystic,  and  then  a  Moravian,  and 
always  predisposed  to  Quietism.  Wesley 
was  very  fond  of  Gambold's  poetry — poetry 
of  superior  "merit  and  of  great  refinement, 
marked  especially  by  a  subtle  and  spiritual- 
istic philosophic  tendency — and  he  not  sel- 
dom quotes  it. 

I  have  quoted  Wesley's  own  words  in  re- 
gard to  the  philosophical  skepticism  which 
was  a  leading  feature  of  his  intellectual 
character.  So  conscious  was  he  of  his  tend- 
ency to  skepticism  that  he  was  afraid,  as 
he  tells  us,  to  prosecute  the  study  of  math- 
ematics because  he  found  it  to  undermine 
his  faith  in  all  moral  conclusions.  He  was 
one  of  the  keenest  and  most  skeptical  of 
historical  critics,  as  we  shall  immediately 
show;  but,  like  Dr.  Johnson,  while  acutely 
and  intrepidly  critical  in  regard  to  matters 
which  he  conceived  to  lie  fully  within  the 


Wesley  as  a    TJiiuker.  241 

scope  of  his  critical  understanding  and  fac- 
ulty, he  durst  not  carry  the  same  temper  of 
mind,  or  assume  the  same  right  of  critical 
judgment,  in  regard  to  the  world  of  spirit- 
ual powers  and  realities.  The  principle  on 
which  he  acted  in  judging  of  things  pertain- 
ing to  the  world  of  consciousness,  and  of 
invisible  spirits  and  forces,  he  himself  ex- 
plains in  his  comments  on  a  certain  case 
which  he  records  in  his  Journal.  I  give  his 
words  : — 

"One  of  the  strangest  accounts  I  ever 
read  ;  yet  I  can  find  no  pretense  to  disbe- 
lieve it.  The  well-known  character  of  the 
person  excludes  all  suspicion  of  fraud  ;  and 
the  nature  of  the  circumstances  themselves 
excludes  the  possibility  of  delusion.  It  is 
true,  there  are  several  of  them  which  I  do 
not  comprehend ;  but  this  with  me  is  a  very 
slender  objection  ;  for  what  is  it  which  I  do 
comprehend,  even  of  the  things  I  see  daily? 
Truly  not  '  the  smallest  grain  of  sand  or 
spire  of  grass.'  I  know  not  how  the  one 
grows,  or  how  the  particles  of  the  other  co- 
here together.    What  pretense,  then,  have  I 

16 


242  The  Living  Wesley. 

to  deny  well-attested  facts,  because  I  cannot 
comprehend  them?"* 

Thus  did  the  philosophical  skeptic  justify 
what  religious  skeptics  stigmatized  as  his 
credulity.  On  the  other  hand,  he  was  not 
slow  to  retort  against  the  skeptics  of  his 
day  the  charge  of  credulity  as  respected 
common  mundane  things. 

As  respects  historical  criticism,  Wesley 
was  fifty  years  in  advance  of  his  age  ;  many 
illustrations  might  be  given  to  show  how 
penetrating,  independent,  and  impartial, 
were  his  views  as  a  student  of  history.  He 
recognized  fully  and  immediately  the  merits 
of  Hooke's  "  Roman  History,"  pronouncing 
it  far  the  best  he  had  seen.  He  says,  "  I 
admire  him  for  doing  justice  to  many  great 
men  who  have  been  generally  misrepre- 
sented ;  Manlius  Capitolinus,  in  particular, 
as  well  as  the  two  Gracchi."  At  the  same 
time  he  objects  that  "  he  recites  at  large  the 
senseless  tales  of  Clelia  swimming:  the 
Tiber,  Mucius  Scaevola,  and  twenty  more  ; 
and    afterward    knocks    them    all    on    the 

*  "  Works,"  vol.  iv,  p.  279. 


Wesley  as  a   Thinker.  243 

head.  What  need,  then,  of  reciting  them? 
We  want  history,  not  romance,  though 
compiled  by  Livy  himself."  * 

"  To-day,"  he  says,  "  I  read  upon  the  road 
a  very  agreeable  book,  Mr.  Dobb's  '  Uni- 
versal History.'  .  .  .  But  I  still  doubt  of 
many  famous  incidents  which  have  passed 
current  for  many  ages.  To  instance  one  : 
I  cannot  believe  there  was  ever  such  a  na- 
tion as  the  Amazons  in  the  world.  The 
whole  affair  of  the  Argonauts  I  judge  to  be 
equally  fabulous,  as  Mr.  Bryant  has  shown 
many  parts  of  ancient  history  to  be  ;  and 
no  wonder,  considering  how  allegories  and 
poetic  fables  have  been  mistaken  for  real 
histories."  f 

"  I  read  to-day,"  he  writes,  (April  25, 
1748,)  "what  is  accounted  the  most  correct 
history  of  St.  Patrick  that  is  extant ;  and, 
on  the  maturest  consideration,  I  was  much 
inclined  to  believe  that  St.  Patrick  and  St. 
George  were  of  one  family.  The  whole 
story  smells  strongly  of  romance.  To  touch 
only  on  a  few  particulars  : — I   object  to  his 

*  "  Works,"  vol.  iv,  p.  363.  t  Ibid.,  p.  672. 


244  The  Living  Wesley. 

first  setting  out ;  the  Bishop  of  Rome  had 
no  such  power  in  the  beginning  of  the  fifth 
century  as  this  account  supposes  ;  nor  would 
his  uncle,  the  Bishop  of  Tours,  have  sent 
him  in  that  age  to  Rome  for  a  commission 
to  convert  Ireland,  having  himself  as  much 
authority  over  that  land  as  any  Italian 
bishop  whatever.  Again,  I  never  heard  be- 
fore of  an  apostle  sleeping  thirty-five  years, 
and  beginning  to  preach  at  threescore. 
But  his  success  stagers  me  the  most  of  all: 
no  blood  of  the  martyrs  is  here ;  no  re- 
proach, no  scandal  of  the  cross  ;  no  perse- 
cution to  those  that  will  live  godly.  Noth- 
ing is  to  be  heard  of,  from  the  beginning  to 
the  end,  but  kings,  nobles,  warriors,  bow- 
ing down  before  him.  Thousands  are  con- 
verted, without  any  opposition  at  all ;  twelve 
thousand  at  one  sermon.  If  these  things 
were  so,  either  there  was  then  no  devil  in 
the  world,  or  St.  Patrick  did  not  preach  the 
Gospel  of  Christ."" 

In   a  similar  spirit  of  wholesome  critical 
skepticism    he  comments   on    Dr.   Leland's 

*  "Works,"  vol.  iii,  p.  423. 


Wesley  as  a   T J  tinker.  245 

"  History  of  Ireland,"  repudiating  altogether 
the  notion  that  the  Irish  "  were  ever  a  civil- 
ized nation,  till  they  were  civilized  by  the 
English."  He  is  bold  enough  to  deny  that 
"Ireland  was,  in  the  seventh  or  eighth  cen- 
tury, the  grand  seat  of  learning;"  and  espe- 
cially singles  out  as  incredible  the  pretense 
that  in  Armagh,  one  of  the  "many  famous 
colleges "  of  the  island,  there  were  seven 
thousand  students.  All  this  he  "  ranks  with 
the  history  of  '  Bel  and  the  Dragon.'"* 

On  the  page  following  these  remarks 
he  quotes  with  approval  his  friend  Dr.  By- 
rom's  explanation  of  the  origin  of  the  name 
of  England's  patron  saint.  "  I  think,"  he 
says,  "  that  there  can  be  no  reasonable 
doubt  of  the  truth  of  his  conjecture  that 
Georgius  is  a  mistake  for  Gregorius  ;  that 
the  real  patron  of  England  is  St.  Gregory, 
(who  sent  Austin,  the  monk,  to  convert 
England,)  and  that  St.  George  (whom  no 
one  knows)  came  in  by  a  mere  blunder."  f 

I  do  not  by  any  means  intend  to  adopt 
or  vouch   for   all   Wesley's   trenchant  criti- 

*  "  Works,"  vol.  iii,  p.  399.  \  Ibid.,  p.  400. 


246  The  Living  Wesley. 

cisms ;  I  wish  only  to  show  the  critical 
quality  of  his  intellect.  His  whole  treat- 
ment of  the  "  History  of  England,"  of  which 
he  wrote  himself  a  succinct  epitome,  was 
distinguished  by  remarkable  independence 
of  mind.  He  held  to  the  side  of  Horace 
Walpole  in  his  "  Historic  Doubts,"  so  far  as 
respected  the  character  of  Richard  III. 
He  gave  up,  after  investigation,  the  strong 
prejudices  of  his  youth  in  favor  of  "  the 
Martyr,"  (Charles  I.,)  and  when  his  brother 
Charles,  in  a  letter,  remonstrated  with  him  on 
this  account,  his  reply  was  that  he  could  not 
"in  conscience  say  less  evil  of  him."  High 
Tory  as  he  was  by  nurture  and  education, 
he  not  only  revised,  but  altogether  changed, 
his  views  respecting  the  controversies  of 
Charles  the  Second's  reign.  Referring  to 
Baxter's  life,  he  says,  "In  spite  of  all  the 
prejudice  of  education,  I  could  not  but  see 
that  the  poor  Nonconformists  had  been 
used  without  either  justice  or  mercy ;  and 
that  many  of  the  Protestant  bishops  of 
King  Charles  had  neither  more  religion  nor 
humanity  than  the  Popish  bishops  of  Queen 


Wesley  as  a   Thinker.  247 

Mary."  *  And  again  he  says,  referring  to 
the  persecutions  of  the  Presbyterians  in 
Scotland,  "  O  what  a  blessed  governor  was 
that  good-natured  man,  so-called,  King 
Charles  the  Second  !  Bloody  Queen  Mary 
was  a  lamb,  a  mere  dove,  in  comparison  of 
him!"f  Candor  pure  and  impartial,  per- 
fect honesty  of  purpose  in  research  and  in 
judging,  incorruptible  love  of  truth,  this  is 
the  prime  and  highest  qualification  in  an 
historian  or  an  historical  critic.  More  than 
any  thing  else,  it  helps  to  the  attainment  of 
the  truth  in  history.  This  quality  John 
Wesley  possessed — pure  and  fearless  hon- 
esty and  candor. 

Wesley  himself,  as  I  have  said,  often 
laughed  at  the  credulity  of  his  skeptical 
contemporaries.  He  criticises  severely,  and 
in  some  detail,  the  Abbe  Raynal's  "  History 
of  the  Settlements  and  Trade  of  the  Euro- 
peans in  the  Indies."  He  stigmatizes  "sev- 
eral of  his  assertions  as  false  in  fact,"  sin- 
gling out  in  particular  the  assertion  that 
Batavia    is    a  healthy   place.     He    declares 

*  "  Works,"  vol.  iii,  p.  568.  \  Ibid.,  vol.  iv,  p.  271. 


248  The   Living  Wesley. 

that  his  account  of  China  is  "pure  romance, 
flowing  from  the  Abbe's  fruitful  brain."  He 
"  supposes "  that  the  account  of  the  Peru- 
vian nation  is  taken  from  "  that  pretty  novel 
of  '  Marmontel/  "  He  inquires  if  "  many  of 
his  assertions  do  not  so  border  upon  the 
marvelous,  that  none  but  a  disciple  of  Vol- 
taire could  swallow  them  ?  as  the  account 
of  milk-white  men,  with  no  hair,  red  eyes, 
and  the  understanding  of  a  monkey."* 

He  was  very  keen  in  his  criticism  of  all 
contemporary  books  of  travel,  very  suspi- 
cious of  "travelers'  stories."  In  the  bosom 
of  "  the  lovely  family  at  Balham,"  he  writes, 
"  1  had  leisure  on  Tuesday,  Wednesday,  and 
Thursday  to  consider  thoroughly  the  ac- 
count of  the  Pelew  Islands.  It  is  ingenious, 
but  I  esteem  it  a  dangerous  book.  ...  I 
cannot  believe  that  there  is  such  a  heathen 
on  earth  as  Abba  Thulle,  much  less  such  a 
heathen  nation  as  is  here  painted."  "  But 
what  do  you  think  of  Prince  Lee  Boo  ?"  "  I 
think  he  was  a  good-natured,  sensible  young 
man,  who  came  to  England  with  Captain 
*  "  Works,"  vol.  iv,  pp.  113,  114. 


Wesley  as  a   Thinker.  249 

Wilson,  and  had  learned  his  lesson  well ; 
but  just  as  much  a  prince  as  Tomo  Chachi 
was  a  king."  *  This  entry  was  made  within 
about  fifteen  months  of  Wesley's  death, 
when  he  was  eighty-six  years  old. 

*  "Works,"  vol.  iv,  p.  456. 


250  The  Living  Wesley. 


CHAPTER  V. 

WESLEY'S     DISPOSITION     AND     CHARACTER 
ILLUSTRATED    AND    VINDICATED. 

HAVE  said  thus  much  of  Wesley's  in- 


i 


tellectual  characteristics,  because,  so  far 
as  I  know,  justice  has  never  been  done  to 
them.  No  biographer  has  brought  out  the 
side  of  his  character  on  which  I  have  last 
dwelt.  As  to  his  accomplishments  as  a 
linguist,  in  which  few  men  in  England  ex- 
celled him — as  a  logician — as  a  poetical 
critic  of  remarkably  true  and  severe  taste, 
and  as  himself  no  mean  poet — as  to  his 
temper,  skill,  and  admirable  talents  as  a 
controversialist — his  powers  as  a  theologian 
— and  his  eminent  merits  as  one  of  the  pur- 
est and  best  writers  of  English  in  his  own 
or  any  age — I  say  nothing  in  this  study. 
These  subjects  have  been  amply  dealt  with 
by  others. 

It  is  not  necessary,  however,  to  deny  that 


Disposition  and  Character  Vindicated.      251 

in  listening  to  men's  own  statements  about 
themselves,  Wesley's  charity  was  so  ex- 
treme as  fairly  to  lay  him  open  to  the 
charge  of  credulity.  On  his  properly  intel- 
lectual side  he  was  no  more  credulous  than 
Dr.  Johnson  or  Father  Newman.  On  the 
side  of  charitable  hopes  and  judgments  he 
may  have  been  open  to  the  charge.  His 
brother  Charles,  somewhere  in  his  Journal, 
writes  that  John  "was  born  for  the  benefit 
of  knaves."  John  hardly  denied  the  im- 
peachment. When  it  was  necessary  to 
investigate  or  to  watch  and  study  a  suspi- 
cious case,  he  would  send  for  his  brother 
Charles  to  come  and  assist  him.  The  great- 
er suspiciousness  of  his  brother,  and  his 
occasionally  keener  penetration  and  insight 
into  personal  character,  were  of  advantage 
by  the  side  of  John's  unsuspicious  confid- 
ingness.  Nevertheless  we  have  it  on  John's 
own  distinct  testimony,  that,  after  all,  he 
was  more  seldom  deceived  in  his  estimate 
of  men,  and  more  seldom  betrayed  by  them, 
than  his  brother  Charles.  He  had,  in  fact, 
and  in  no  ordinary  measure,  precisely  what 


252  The   Living  Wesley. 

Miss  Wedgwood  thinks  that  he  was  lacking 
in — great  faculty  of  sympathy  and  insight,  as 
respected  individuals  ;  always,  however,  see- 
ing more  directly  and  fully  the  good  or  the 
capacity  of  good  in  them  than  the  evil.  He 
was  necessarily,  indeed,  to  a  very  large  ex- 
tent, an  absorbed  and  preoccupied  man. 
He  had  no  leisure  to  give  his  mind  to  trifles, 
and  sometimes,  especially  in  his  earlier 
years,  omitted  to  relate  to  those  interested, 
pleasant  and  proper  intelligence  respecting 
friends  or  relatives.  But  this  was  not  owing 
to  any  real  want  of  keen  and  ready  sympa- 
thy with  others.  He  was,  by  the  testimony 
of  all  who  knew  him — of  such  witnesses  as  his 
friend  and  follower  Henry  Moore,  and  as 
his  friend,  the  Irish  Churchman,  Alexander 
Knox,  (a  man  of  high  culture  and  gifts,) — one 
of  the  most  pleasant,  sunny,  sociable  of  com- 
panions, although  he  could  not  give  more 
than  two  hours  at  a  time  to  Dr.  Johnson, 
who  highly  esteemed  him  and  his  society, 
whereat  the  great  dictator  was  sorely  disap- 
pointed and  chagrined. 

Wesley  was  a  quick-tempered  man,  and 


Disposition  and  Character  Vindicated.       253 

sometimes,  in  his  haste,  said  sharp  things  ; 
but  he  was  yet  quicker  to  apologize,  if  he 
had  spoken  too  strongly,  than  to  be  angry. 
He  was  incapable  of  malice  ;  he  was  one  of 
the  most  forgiving  of  men.  He  was  any  thing 
but  a  Stoic,  but  he  never  indulged  in  vain 
regrets  any  more  than  in  settled  resentment. 
Scarcely  any  other  man  could  have  carried 
such  vast  cares  so  lightly  as  he  did.  "  I  feel 
and  I  grieve,"  he  says,  "  but,  by  the  grace 
of  God,  I  fret  at  nothing." 

He  was  full  of  wit  and  pleasant  humor, 
as  all  who  have  read  his  Journal  or  any  of 
the  larger  biographies  of  him  well  know. 
Southey,  Stevens,  and  Tyerman  all  give 
excellent  instances  of  this.  The  one  fact 
which  we  have  found  it  difficult  to  reconcile 
writh  any  sense  of  humor,  and  with  his  gen- 
eral sunniness  and  kindliness  of  disposition, 
is  the  seemingly  morose  asceticism  of  his 
rules  for  the  management  of  Kinofswood 
School.  In  an  earlier  page  of  this  volume 
I  have  suggested  what  appears  to  be  the 
only  solution  of  this  apparently  strange 
incongruity — this     monastic     unkindliness. 


254  The  Living  Wesley. 

Public  schools,  in  Wesley's  time,  and  for 
many  years  afterward,  were  rude  and  harsh 
Spartan  republics,  where  play  meant  coarse 
violence,  and  where  free,  unfettered  inter- 
course among  the  boys  meant  mutual  bar- 
barizing and  demoralization.  Those  who 
do  not  know  the  now  happily  almost  incred- 
ible truth  as  to  the  state  of  public  boarding- 
schools  in  the  last  century,  will  not  be  able 
to  do  justice  to  Wesley  in  this  respect. 
Wesley  himself  had  had  a  bitter  experience 
at  the  Charterhouse.  As  for  the  mere 
hardness  of  the  Kingswood  regulations,  it 
must  be  remembered  that  the  regulations 
of  all  public  schools  were  hard  ;  very  early 
rising,  regular  hours  for  prayer  and  worship, 
rigid  fare,  semi-monastic  rules  and  usages, 
and  special  dress,  prevailed  every-where 
alike — in  Church  of  England  schools,  in 
Quaker  schools,  and  in  Moravian  schools. 

Before  I  close  I  must  needs  make  some 
special  reference  to  the  manner  in  which 
Mr.  Tyerman  has  dealt  with  the  character 
of  Wesley  in  his  maturer  and  later  life. 

I  wish  to  say  a  word  about  the  history 


Disposition  and  Character  Vindicated.      255 

of  Mr.  M'Nab,  and  the  affair  at  Bath  with 
respect  to  this  preacher  and  Mr.  Smyth,  of 
Dublin.  Mr.  Tyerman  has  given  a  full  and 
faithful  history  of  the  whole  affair,  for  which 
he  deserves  our  thanks.  But  while  he 
evidently  enters  fully  into  the  position  and 
convictions  o(  the  preacher  who  thought 
himself  aggrieved,  he  does  not  seem  truly 
to  have  realized  Mr.  Wesley's  own  position 
and  necessities.  While  we  cannot  but 
strongly  sympathize  in  a  certain  sense  with 
the  case  of  M'Nab,  it  is,  I  think,  clear  that 
Wesley  could  not  have  acted  otherwise 
than  he  did,  and  that  his  conduct  in  the 
whole  affair  deserves  the  highest  praise. 
It  was  a  crisis  in  which  Wesley  could  not 
have  given  way.  But  although  he  remained 
firm,  he  respected  the  feelings  and  convic- 
tions of  his  preacher;  treated  him  with 
generous  consideration,  and,  notwithstand- 
ing the  opposition  of  his  brother,  received 
him  back  into  favor.  So  long  as  Wesley 
lived,  he  could  not  absolutely  part  with  his 
power.  He  used  it  in  this  case  to  provide 
an  opening  for   an    Irish  clergyman,  (Mr. 


:~  The   Living  Wesley. 

Smyths  for  whom  it  was  important  to  pro- 
vide ;  various  and  important  interests,  both 
in  England  and  in  Ireland,  seeming  to  re- 
quire that  he  should  so  provide.  He  could 
not  have  submitted  himself,  and  all  his  pre- 
rogatives and  powers,  to  the  theoretical 
claims  of  one  of  his  junior  preachers,  a 
strong  Scottish  doctrinaire,  a  Presbyterian 
theorist,  however  amiable  or  estimable, 
without  breaking  down  all  his  authority  and 
discipline  together ;  but  he  showed  no  vin- 
dictiveness,  and  hastened  to  reinstate  his 
contumacious  follower.  In  this,  as  in  other 
matters,  a  larger  aeneral  view  ol  Wesley's 
position  and  principles — of  the  whole  situa- 
tion— would,  in  our  judgment,  have  led  Mr. 
Tyerman  to  a  different  conclusion  from  that 
which  he  has  pronounced. 

It  appears  to  me  that  Mr.  Tyerman  has 
failed  to  apprehend  fully  the  position  in 
which  Wesley  found  himself  as  to  the 
Church  of  England,  or  the  powerful  reasons 
which  made  it  impossible  for  him  to  accept 
in  full  the  position  of  the  founder  of  a  new 
and  distinct  Church  ;  a  Church  outside  the 


Disposition  and  Character  Vindicated.      257 

Church  of  England,  and  apart  from  all 
other  Churches.  I  do  not  hesitate  to  de- 
clare my  own  deepening  conviction,  that 
Wesley  could  not,  as  a  wise  man — could 
hardly  as  a  sane  man — have  taken  any  other 
position  than  that  to  which  he  held  so  fast. 
He  was  not  called  by  Providence  to  or- 
ganize a  distinctly  and  fully  independent 
Church.  If  he  had  undertaken  the  task 
he  must  have  undertaken  responsibilities 
which,  at  his  time  of  life,  in  his  circum- 
stances, and  with  his  antecedents,  he  could 
not  possibly  have  sustained.  He  did  all  he 
could  to  meet  the  feelings  and  views  of 
those  who  demanded  separation.  He  was 
not  obstinate  or  immovable  ;  he  was  emi- 
nently candid  and  open-minded.  He  yield- 
ed whenever  it  was  necessary  to  yield.  He 
moved  as  far  as  he  was  obliged,  though  no 
farther.  This,  I  think,  was  not  weak  timid- 
ity on  his  part,  but  was  dictated  by  consid- 
erations of  wise  Christian  expediency. 
Nothing  else  in  Wesley  would  have  been 
consistent  or  tolerable.  In  the  many  in- 
stances, accordinglv,  in  which  Mr.  Tverman 

1: 


258  The  Living  Wesley. 

censures  Wesley  for  not  fully  recognizing 
the  claims  of  his  preachers  to  the  full  status 
of  pastors,  and  to  constitute  of  and  by 
themselves  the  supreme  and  independent 
governing  authority  for  the  Societies,  I  think 
him  to  be  in  error.  I  do  not  admit  that 
the  Methodist  preachers  had  any  necessary 
Divine  right  to  be  ordained  as  Presbyters, 
still  less  to  be  constituted  the  supreme  and 
sole  governing  body  and  fountain  of  author- 
ity for  the  Societies  of  Methodism,  consti- 
tuted into  an  independent  and  organized 
Church. 

At  the  same  time  I,  of  course,  fully  recog- 
nize the  fact  (as  Wesley  himself,  with  beau- 
tiful candor,  always  did,  notwithstanding  the 
violent  antagonism  of  his  brother  Charles,) 
that,  from  their  point  of  view,  the  demands 
of  the  preachers  were  very  natural,  and  not 
at  all  unreasonable  ;  that,  apart  from  Wes- 
ley's personal  history  and  necessities,  and 
from  the  prejudices  and  feelings  of  many 
within  Methodism,  and  of  many  without, 
much  was  to  be  said  for  the  claims  they 
urged. 


Disposition  cuid  Character  Vindicated.       259 

In  the  first  part  of  this  volume  I  have 
pointed  out  the  austerity,  the  "  sinister  fidel- 
ity," to  repeat  the  language  I  have  there 
used,  with  which  Mr.  Tyerman  deals  with 
Wesley  in  all  cases  in  which  the  propriety 
of  his  conduct  seems  at  all  open  to  contro- 
versy. This  characteristic  appears  very 
strongly  in  his  manner  of  treating  the  his- 
tory of  Wesley's  relations  with  two  emi- 
nently useful  and  devoted  women,  and  in 
his  judgments  respecting  the  women  them- 
selves. In  the  instances  to  which  I  refer, 
he  seems  to  me  to  have  done  unintentional 
but  serious  injustice,  not  only  to  Wesley  him- 
self, but  to  these  excellent  women — women 
with  whom  Wesley  was  on  intimate  relations. 

It  will  be  anticipated  that  I  refer,  as  one 
of  these  cases,  to  Wesley's  relations  with 
Grace  Murray.  As  to  this  case,  Mr.  Tyer- 
man sums  up  his  judgment  in  these  strong 
words:  "John  Wesley  was  a  dupe;  Grace 
Murray  was  a  flirt ;  John  Bennet  was  a 
cheat ;  Charles  Wesley  was  a  sincere,  but 
irritated,  impetuous,  and  officious  friend."  * 

*  Tyerman's  "  Wesley,"  vol.  ii,  p.  55. 


260  The  Living  Wesley. 

I  confess  that  I  cannot  accept  this  summary 
judgment.  The  case  is  unquestionably  one 
of  no  little  difficulty  and  perplexity.  But 
Mr.  Tyerman  cuts  the  knot  with  a  coarse 
knife,  whereas  it  needs  to  be  untied  with  a 
skillful  hand.  Grace  Murray  is  not  justly 
described  as  "  a  flirt."  All  we  know  of  her, 
apart  from  this  affair,  renders  it  very  im- 
probable that  she  should  have  proved  her- 
self to  be  such  in  this  case.  She  was  a 
woman  not  only  of  singular  tact,  but  of  at- 
tractive modesty,  of  perfect  propriety,  and 
of  deep  piety*  All  we  know  of  her  would 
lead  to  the  conclusion  that  she  would  have 
been  not  an  unworthy  helpmeet  for  John 
Wesley.  Wesley  worked  in  her  company 
during  many  months,  and  closely  watched 
her  for  years.  We  know  what  his  testi- 
mony is  as  to  her  gifts  and  graces,  her  whole 
character  and  deportment.  Her  Diary  re- 
mains to  us  ;  and  we  know  the  superiority 
of  her  character  and  the  savor  of  her  piety 

*  There  is  nothing-  in  the  history  of  her  residence  at  the 
Orphan  House,  as  read  by  a  fair  interpreter,  inconsistent 
with  this  conclusion. 


Disposition  and  Character  Vindicated.       261 

in  her  long  after-life  as  the  wife  and  widow 
of  John  Bennet.  Mr.  Tyerman  himself  has 
furnished  full  evidence  on  this  point.  Such 
a  woman  it  is  hard  to  suspect  of  being 
guilty  of  "flirtation"  with  John  Bennet, 
still  more  with  one  so  revered  as  Wesley, 
and  more  still  with  Bennet  and  Wesley 
together.  The  temper  of  "  a  flirt  "  would 
certainly  have  shown  itself  much  rather  in 
her  relations  with  inferior  men  than  with 
Wesley.  No  doubt  she  was  strongly  at- 
tached to  Bennet,  on  whom  she  had  attended 
assiduously  as  a  nurse  for  six  months,  and 
who  seems  to  have  thought  himself  secure 
of  her  affections  and  of  her  acceptance  of 
himself  whenever  he  should  be  free  and  at 
liberty  to  ask  it.  But  if  others  had  not  in- 
terfered— had  not  represented  to  her  that 
she  would  be  sinning  against  Christ  and  his 
Church,  that  she  was  under  temptation  her- 
self and  was  making  herself  a  tempter  or 
cause  of  temptation  to  Wesley — she  would, 
no  doubt,  have  gratefully  and  humbly  made 
herself  Wesley's  helper  and  cherisher  for 
life.     Those  who  for  various  reasons  were 


262  The  Living  Wesley. 

opposed  to  Wesley's  marrying  Grace  Mur- 
ray, played  continually  upon  her  sensibility 
and  tenderness  of  conscience,  and  thus  kept 
her  in  most  painful  oscillation  or  vacillation. 
Sometimes,  also,  they  did  what  they  could 
to  sow  jealousy  and  suspicion  in  her  mind, 
so  as  to  alienate  her,  if  possible,  from  Wes- 
ley. These  parties  all  supported  Bennet's 
plea  and  claim,  for  obvious  reasons.  Ben- 
net  himself  exerted  all  his  authority  and 
influence  in  the  same  direction.  It  is  pos- 
sible to  understand  the  perplexed  history 
to  which  I  have  referred  without  imputing 
heartless  trifling  to  Grace  Murray,  although 
I  do  not  pretend  to  deny  that  she  showed 
weakness  in  the  affair  ;  but  it  is  impossible 
to  clear  either  John  Bennet  or  Wesley's 
brother  Charles  from  all  obliquity  of  con- 
duct in  the  part  they  took  in  this  matter. 
Throughout,  the  character  of  Wesley  himself 
shines  most  beautifully  in  connection  with 
this  love  affair,  to  him,  without  question,  the 
most  painful  trial  of  his  life.  His  own  touch- 
ing and  beautiful  poem  on  the  subject  re- 
mains in  evidence  of  his  feelings  in  the  case. 


Disposition  and  Character  Vindicated.       263 

From  Mr.  Tyerman's  criticisms  on  the 
case  of  Mrs.  Ryan  I  still  more  strongly  dis- 
sent than  from  his  judgment  in  the  matter 
of  Grace  Murray.  I  think  the  principles  on 
which  he  has  dealt  with  this  case  are  alto- 
gether wrong.  The  unfavorable  anteced- 
ents of  her  early  life  are  made  much  of — 
far  too  much  of,  in  my  judgment.  But  not- 
withstanding those  antecedents,  whatever 
they  were,  her  proved  character  and  merits 
were  such  as  to  recommend  her  to  the 
esteem  and  intimate  friendship  of  some  of 
the  most  excellent  Christians  of  her  time — 
Christians  of  high  social  propriety  and 
breeding,  as  well  as  of  pre-eminent  Chris- 
tian character,  among  whom  Miss  Bosan- 
quet,  after  John  Wesley,  was  one  of  the 
most  conspicuous.  To  assume  that  such  a 
woman,  because  of  her  early  life  and  con- 
nections, ought  not  to  have  been  employed 
by  Wesley  as  a  housekeeper  and  a  class- 
leader,  is,  I  think,  particularly  unworthy  of 
a  Methodist  historian,  and  opposed  to  the 
spirit  of  Christ's  Gospel  of  grace.  That 
Wesley  was  right  in  the  confidence  he  gave 


264  The   Living  Wesley. 

to  Mrs.  Ryan  was  demonstrated  by  the  re- 
sult. She  was  eminently  useful  and  respect- 
ed in  situations  of  important  trust,  in  which 
Wesley  placed  her.  Where  others  had 
failed,  she  succeeded.  No  other  woman 
could  compare  with  her,  except  Grace  Mur- 
ray, who  had  been  so  useful  to  Wesley  many 
years  before.  She  was  a  remarkably  gifted 
and  a  most  devoted  woman.  And  her  life, 
to  its  close,  justified  the  confidence  which 
Wesley  reposed  in  her. 

Mr.  Tyerman's  judgment  in  these  cases  is 
singularly  severe,  as  respects  all  the  parties 
concerned,  not  excepting  Mr.  Wesley.  He 
reflects  upon  Wesley  for  taking  Grace  Mur- 
ray with  him  on  a  pillion  in  his  journeys, 
several  times,  when  there  was  special  work 
for  her  to  do.  Surely  he  cannot  be  igno- 
rant of  the  universal  custom  of  Wesley's  day 
for  women  to  ride  on  pillion  behind  men, 
either  father,  brother,  husband,  affianced  lov- 
er, trusted  and  reputable  friend,  of  suitable 
age,  or  man-servant.  Mrs.  Charles  Wesley 
traveled  many  miles  in  this  way  behind 
preachers  or  man-servants.     To  impute  inv 


Disposition  and  Character  Vindicated.       265 

prudence  to  Wesley  in  the  matter  in  ques- 
tion is  exceedingly  strange.  Mr.  Tyerman 
condemns  Grace  Murray,  again,  because  in 
her  earlier  life,  being  under  terrible  tempta- 
tion at  the  time — temptation  which  assailed 
the  very  foundations  of  her  faith — she  yet 
persevered  in  meeting  her  class,  and  in  all 
her  other  public  engagements.  To  those 
familiar  with  the  memoirs  of  such  men  as 
Richard  Baxter,  in  former  times,  and  Rich- 
ard Treffry,  in  later  times,  and  in  Methodist 
circles,  a  censure  of  Grace  Murray  on  such 
an  account  must  seem  passing  strange.  But 
Mr.  Tyerman  seems  to  have  very  little  sym- 
pathy with  spirits  exercised  by  sore  doubt 
and  temptation.  Wesley's  doubts,  and  fears, 
and  self-condemnation,  soon  after  his  con- 
version, appear  to  him  to  be  a  painful  mys- 
tery ;  whereas  to  us,  they  appear  to  have 
been  not  only  natural  in  themselves,  but  an 
appropriate  and  valuable  part  of  the  disci- 
pline through  which  such  a  teacher  and 
leader  as  Wesley  could  not  but  be  expected 
to  pass. 

Mr.  Tyerman  more  than  intimates  that 


266  The  Leving  Wesley. 

Wesley  was  imprudent  in  keeping  up  an 
extensive  and  confidential  correspondence 
with  a  large  number  of  female  disciples. 
Of  those  letters  many  samples  have  been 
printed.  I  would  ask  any  one  familiar  with 
those  letters,  or  who  has  fairly  realized  what 
Wesley  was  to  the  leading  spirits  through- 
out all  his  societies — their  special  personal 
pastor  and  spiritual  father — or  in  what  re- 
lation his  personal  instructions  and  influ- 
ence stood  to  the  whole  work  of  Methodism 
throughout  all  the  Kingdom  and  in  Ireland, 
to  judge  what  Methodism  would  have  lost 
if  such  a  correspondence  had  not  been 
kept  up.  It  is  scarcely  too  much  to  say, 
that  Methodism  could  hardly  have  been 
well  sustained  without  it.  Because  of  the 
wicked  and  insane  jealousy  of  Mrs.  Wes- 
ley, Mr.  Tyerman  decides  that  Wesley's 
correspondence  with  Mrs.  Ryan,  "  pure  and 
pious  "  as  he  justly  declares  it  to  have  been, 
ought  not  to  have  been  continued. 

And  now  I  must  write  my  last  paragraph. 
I  have  offered  no  adequate  criticism  of  Mr. 
Tyerman's   three   volumes ;  my  object,  in- 


Disposition  and  Character  Vindicated.       267 

deed,  has  been,  in  good  part,  independent 
of  any  special  critical  view.  I  have  wished 
to  give  my  own  views  of  Wesley,  as  looked 
at  in  lights  in  which  we  think  he  has  been 
but  seldom  regarded.  I  desire,  in  closing,  to 
repeat  that,  though  I  differ  from  Mr.  Tyer- 
man  at  not  a  few  points,  I  fully  recognize 
the  great  value  of  his  volumes.  His  un- 
equaled  knowledge  in  detail  of  the  whole 
ground  over  which  he  leads  his  readers  is  a 
great  recommendation.  The  knowledge  is 
perfectly  mastered,  and  is  digested  and  pre- 
sented in  perfect  order  and  clearness.  I  do 
not,  indeed,  think  that  miserable  and  scan- 
dalous tracts  which  fell  still-born  from  the 
press  when  first  published,  and  never  got  a 
hearing — never  were  remembered  or  made 
the  slightest  impression  while  he  lived — 
should  be  resuscitated  and  rehabilitated  in 
Mr.  Tyerman's  pages.  It  lends  to  such 
productions  an  importance  which  never  be- 
longed to  them ;  it  is,  in  fact,  misleading, 
because  it  leaves  the  impression  that  there 
may  have  been  some  foundation  for  them, 
or,  at  least,  that  they  attracted  some  atten- 


268  The   Living  Wesley. 

tion  and  possessed  some  importance  at  the 
time.  But,  apart  from  this  feature  in  Mr. 
Tyerman's  volumes,  I  can  only  thank  him 
most  heartily  for  his  ample  and  wonderful 
research.  If  he  were,  in  future  editions,  to 
spare  us  needless  details  of  the  sort  we  have 
indicated,  he  might  save  space  for  such 
statements,  reflections,  and  general  views, 
here  and  there,  as  would  more  distinctly 
represent  Wesley's  character,  position,  and 
motives,  than  has  now  been  done  even  in 
these  volumes.  We  want  to  be  made  to 
understand  Wesley  by  the  light  and  sym- 
pathy proper  to  his  own  character,  objects, 
and  surroundings ;  to  judge  him  as  if  we 
had  lived,  both  then  and  now,  with  him  and 
his  contemporaries,  as  well  as  in  this  pres- 
ent age.  The  mere  facts  Mr.  Tyerman 
gives,  and  also  the  correspondence,  in  part ; 
but  still  Wesley  is  judged  too  much  by  the 
light  and  feeling  of  to-day  instead  of  by  the 
light  of  his  own  circumstances  and  age. 
Nevertheless,  with  whatever  drawbacks,  Mr. 
Tyerman  has  done  a  great  work,  and  a 
work  which  greatly  needed  to  be  done.     He 


Disposition  and  Character  Vindicated.      269 

has  furnished  perfect  means  of  knowledge ; 
the  means,  indeed,  if  he  is  carefully  read,  of 
correcting  himself  where  he  is  wrong.  He 
has  given  a  most  interesting  narrative — the 
interest  of  which  is  proved  by  the  large  sale 
of  his  volumes.  His  narrative  of  the  most 
important  parts  of  Wesley's  life  is  particu- 
larly full  and  good.  The  last  two  chapters, 
for  example,  are  complete  and  impressive 
in  a  high  degree  ;  presenting  Wesley's  later 
years  and  last  days  as  they  had  never  been 
presented  before.  In  fine,  Mr.  Tyerman 
has  furnished  almost  complete  materials 
from  which  to  prepare  a  remolded  history 
of  Wesley,  which  shall,  with  perfect  realiza- 
tion, exhibit  him  as  he  grew  and  changed, 
and  was  enlarged  from  stage  to  stage — as 
he  felt  and  judged  and  acted  from  point  to 
point  of  his  eventful  life* 

*  The  date  of  Wesley's  death  was  March  2,  1791.     His 
age  was  eighty-seven. 

THE    END. 


jack  fcij  tin  jfamilg, 

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